Nicola Marie Blanch, 38, was sentenced to seven months’ home detention after pleading guilty in the Invercargill District Court yesterday to seven charges of theft by a person in a special relationship.
Blanch received more than 150 payments into her personal account, totalling $21,748.60.
Furever Homes volunteer Brodie Dodds read a victim impact statement at sentencing yesterday and said Blanch’s actions had caused profound harm to the charity, their volunteers, the foster animals they cared for and the community.
Her actions had tarnished their reputation and had a lasting impact on volunteers who were facing their own personal struggles, such as health challenges and the death of family members.
The former volunteer’s actions left the charity struggling to rebuild financially.
"You exploited our vulnerability and chose to betray us during one of the most difficult periods of our lives.
"The financial impact of Blanche’s theft cannot be overstated ... as a result, we are no longer able to take in any animals at this stage. We simply do not have the funds to help them.
"This is the most painful part of all - she robbed these animals of their chance for a better life.
"You did not steal from us - you stole from the animals who depend on us for their care and protection."
Lawyer Scott Williamson said his client acknowledged her mistake and was remorseful.
"Theft is bad. Theft by a person in a special relationship is worse. Theft from a charity is as bad as it can get."
The Southland community was well aware of her name and what she had done. This would be a large part of her penalty as she would need to deal with this for the rest of her life, he said.
He advocated for home detention and said his client would be able to pay $40 fortnightly towards the reparation — she has already repaid $1130 since the offending.
Judge Walker said Blanch’s offending involved a high degree of premeditation and deception as it was planned and repeated over 150 times.
"It’s evident from what was read to the court that there was layer on layer of deceit and betrayal which has left all of those affected significantly impacted by your offending.
"You took steps to cover your tracks.
"You acknowledged yourself that the motivation for this offending was simply greed."
Blanch had 10 previous convictions - one for dishonesty which happened about 10 years ago.
Judge Walker sentenced her to seven months’ home detention and ordered her to pay the remaining $20,680.60 in reparation as suggested by her lawyer. It would take her almost 20 years to finish repaying the charity.
Speaking after the sentencing, chairwoman Donna Keil felt proud of what her team had done to denounce Blanch’s actions. However, she believed the sentence "did not serve justice".
The charity lost much more than the money Blanch stole - they had to spend a further $21,000 to cover the expenses of desexing cats and also believed more than $5000 was stolen in cash by the former volunteer.
"We just feel really, really emotionally devastated because we are exhausted from the nature of the job ... and we are still trying to recover and [see] how we can rebuild that money - whether we can continue.
"We just have the feeling that the last 14 years have been tarnished.
"For 14 years, we worked hard to be trusted and she came along and completely destroyed that.
"It is really heartbreaking."
