Greed, gullibility lead to jail for dishonesty
A Christchurch grandmother was a victim of "an age-old trick aimed at the gullible and greedy", a judge says.
Jacqueline Louise de Berri, 49, stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from her employer to pay international fraudsters.
What de Berri believed would just be a one-off payment "snowballed" to $452,000 and led to jail.
She ended up making 13 payments to a smooth-talking "Spanish lawyer" last year before being approached by her employer about the theft.
In the Christchurch District Court yesterday, de Berri was sentenced to two years and four months in prison after earlier pleading guilty to 13 charges of dishonestly using documents.
The court was told de Berri, who suffered depression and anxiety attacks, was in a financial crisis when she was drawn into a Nigerian scam over a five-month period.
De Berri, a credit controller at the Christchurch Airport branch of the Hertz rental car company, stole from her employer to pay the fraudsters.
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