A woman was sentenced to 18 months in jail by the Supreme Court for stealing money sent by overseas customers through a money transfer agency. 

Lele Mataia of Vaivase uta and Satoalepai was given the imprisonment term by Justice Fepuleai Ameperosa Roma earlier this month. 

She was represented by lawyer Leinafo Taimalelagi Strickland and pleaded guilty to two counts of theft as a servant and two counts of false accounting. 

The defendant was employed by Pacific Ezy Money Transfer at its Salelologa, Savaii branch from July 2018. 

Her key roles included processing and withdrawal of local customers’ money transferred from overseas accounts. 

According to the summary of facts, all money transactions are recorded on the control money system from where the daily payer records are generated. 

At the end of each day, the defendant and her co-accused were responsible for reconciling transactions against the control money system.   

Mataia would then prepare the Salelologa branch cash report to be emailed to the main office in Apia while the cash balance and report records were kept at the Salelologa office. 

On two occasions in June 2020, she intentionally made false entries on the Salelologa Cash Report and removed money without her employer’s knowledge or approval.  

On 15 June 2020, she stole $8,490.80 to deprive her employer permanently of the said money.  

She did so by deliberately inserting and using incorrect numbers that affected the formula in the system, intending to falsify the daily balance. 

The following day she again by using incorrect numbers and formulas manipulated the system to facilitate a theft of $1,348.37.  

The court heard she intentionally deprived her employer permanently of $9,839.17. 

In late June 2020, her employer became aware of discrepancies in the reports submitted by Mataia and her co-accused.

 During an internal investigation that followed she admitted the theft and was the opportunity to pay back the money.  

In the pre-sentence report, she admitted to the offending and told probation that her co-accused (who has denied the charges) had shown her how to manipulate the system so that she could steal and avoid detection.  

Pacific Ezy Money Transfer in its victim impact report said the offending was a serious breach of trust and impact of Mataia’s dishonesty on their brand and service for the Samoan community in both New Zealand and Samoa. 

The report said the company’s internal investigation showed financial loss amounted to more than $20,000 though the charges finalised by police and on which the woman was sentenced involved $9,839.17.  

It stated that the total loss of consumer funds was never recovered and the company had to absorb the losses and ensure that customers’ funds were still paid out.

Mataia paid back $2000 to the company. 

In his sentence, Justice Roma said theft as a servant cases continue to rise despite the court imposing deterrent sentences of imprisonment. 

The court took 3 years on the lead charge of theft as a servant and deducted time for apology, early guilty plea, and restitution. 

He concluded the defendant was convicted and sentenced to 18 months for theft as a servant and 12 months for false accounting. The sentence is to be served concurrently.