Former city accountant gets jail

 Former city accountant gets jail term for stealing from clients

The Southland Times | Friday, 12 December 2008

A former Invercargill accountant has been sentenced to two and a half years' jail for stealing more than $300,000 from his clients.

Warren Haggerty was sentenced in the Invercargill District Court yesterday by Judge Kevin Phillps on seven charges of money laundering, 40 of using a document for pecuniary advantage and seven of providing false tax returns between 2003 and 2006.

 Haggerty had been working for Ward Wilson chartered accountants when he stole about $302,000.

Judge Phillips said Haggerty's theft had harmed his former colleagues, clients and people who trusted him. "They will feel the effects of this for years to come."

Defence lawyer Bill Dawkins said Haggerty was in debt and struggling to maintain what was a "very austere lifestyle".

Judge Phillips rejected that claim, suggesting instead Haggerty knew he was not going to become partner at the firm and took what he thought was owed to him. "You thought about it and did it again and again."

While it was not particulalry sophisticated, it was calculated, he said. Mr Dawkins said Haggerty's deeds went unnoticed by his employer and clients until the end. "But once the first one was found ... ," Mr Dawkins said. "The cards fell over," Judge Phillips said.

Haggerty's actions betrayed a professional trust, for which the Inland Revenue Department both depended on and was vulnerable to, Judge Phillips said. Haggerty had his clients paying tax on a higher income, then pocketed the tax return and also filed false tax returns for him and his wife.

No reparation was sought by the court or Inland Revenue Haggerty had already repaid $162,000.

Haggerty was struck off by the New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants discplinary tribunal in December last year after he admitted breaching the insitute's code of ethics.