Yvonne Natalie Eleanor Evans, 38, has since lost everything.
The Dunedin District Court yesterday heard she had sold her South Otago home at a loss and was living in a house bus in Canterbury.
But Evans did not lose her liberty.
After earlier pleading guilty to theft in a special relationship, and repaying the stolen cash, she was sentenced to five months’ home detention.
The charge represented nearly a year of dubious checks and balances.
Evans was the duty manager at the Catlins Inn in Owaka for seven years, but her criminal activity only began at the start of last year, the court heard.
Between March 2023 and January this year, the defendant started siphoning off money from various areas of the pub’s cash flow and covering it up.
To hide her swindling, she banned her staff from counting any cash and made herself the sole handler of the funds.
Late weekly bank deposits and unexpected shortfalls caused the head office to become suspicious.
In December, when Evans failed to make an expected payment, the operations manager confronted her.
The defendant claimed she had made the deposit but it was unable to be verified because the bank was closed for the Christmas break.
But when the bank reopened, Evans still had not paid up.
The game was up.
She was asked to return the missing money immediately, but a transfer of only $1000 was made in response.
After a visit from the Clutha Licensing Trust’s operations manager a complete cash count was undertaken.
Evans admitted she had been pilfering money and immediately resigned.
Every receipt was subsequently checked and revealed $22,885 was missing, along with a significant amount of stock.
Counsel Brian Kilkelly said his client had been in a ‘‘toxic relationship’’ and when her partner left the country she was left with all the household expenses.
‘‘She got into a situation where she could not manage her mortgage payments and felt she was just going to lose absolutely everything,’’ Mr Kilkelly said.
Evans had since been shunned by family members and was now working two jobs as a cook while living in a bus at a friend’s property, Mr Kilkelly told the court.
Judge David Robinson acknowledged the defendant had no previous convictions but said she had deliberately set herself up as the sole handler of cash at the bar.
‘‘You obviously put a bit of thought into it,’’ he said.
‘‘This is a substantial fall from grace from a responsible position.’’
As well as the home detention, Evans was sentenced to 100 hours’ community work to give back to the community she had defrauded.
