A man who stole $17,000 in takings from a Queenstown restaurant has failed to clear his name and will remain behind bars.
Carl Kaitika Ngawhika was found guilty on four charges of theft following a jury trial at the Invercargill District Court and was sentenced to two years four months' imprisonment by Judge Murray Callaghan in May.
He appealed the convictions and sentence before the Court of Appeal this month and the decision knocking him back was released this week.
Ngawhika worked at Jack's Point Golf Clubhouse and Restaurant in Queenstown until mid-2014.
During that time he became aware takings were stored in a safe on the premises before being banked and he knew the combination of the safe in a cleaning room under a flight of stairs.
At 7.30am on March 16, 2015, Ngawhika travelled to the premises; he later told police he intended to catch up with former workmates at the restaurant.
He was seen acting suspiciously near the safe area, the court heard.
About an hour later, staff discovered a bank bag containing $17,713 had been taken.
Later that day, police found two bank bags in Ngawhika's vehicle, one of which had a serial number which corresponded with Jack's Point.
The second bag was identified as belonging to another of the defendant's former employers - The Styx restaurant in Nelson, where he had worked until mid-February 2015.
Inquiries by the police revealed cash takings from the business had not been banked on six separate occasions between January 18 and February 14, 2015.
The jury found Ngawhika guilty on the Jack's Point charge and on three of the charges relating to The Styx restaurant involving $4784.
He was acquitted on three other charges.
On appeal, defence counsel Joseph Mooney raised the issue that one of the banking bags found in Ngawhika's car had subsequently been lost by police.
It was ''a crucial exhibit'', he said, and its loss meant the guilty verdict was unsafe.
However, the Court of Appeal disagreed, pointing to the fact the bag had been photographed and independently verified.
Mr Mooney also argued the judge's summing up contained conflicting comments which may have misled the jury.
The appeal court judges rejected that point too.
They were similarly unmoved by Mr Mooney's submissions regarding Ngawhika's sentence.
He said it should have been about 18 months' imprisonment, which could have been converted to home detention.
''We do not accept these submissions,'' the court said.
''The offending involved four separate instances of premeditated theft of significant sums from Mr Ngawhika's employer or former employer. It involved a considerable element of breach of trust because he used knowledge of his employers' banking procedures to carry out the thefts. None of the money has been recovered.''