Newstalk ZB
A supermarket manager used her position to clock up loans from her employer’s account, steal gift cards, and tried to take out a $1.3 million home loan with her husband, who also worked there. Former Mill St Pak’nSave store manager Pamela Ann Cossill was so determined to get a home loan for herself and her husband, Jonathan David Peachey, that she got her office manager to draft a fraudulent letter to ASB Bank stating she had paid back a staff loan. The office manager refused to sign it, so Cossill signed it in her name, while Peachey sent the documents to the bank. The home loan, for an “undisclosed reason”, was eventually declined by the bank, but her thefts from Pak’nSave stretched over the preceding five years and totalled $203,394. That’s made up of $133,415 in loans, in which she made the repayments favourable to her and not the supermarket, and $69,979 worth of stolen gift cards. The 38-year-old – who blamed her offending on her gambling addiction – appeared in the Hamilton District Court for sentencing this afternoon on fraud and theft charges, as her counsel, Fiona Alamyar, tried to keep her out of jail by pushing for up to 80% in discounts. That discount request raised the eyebrows of Judge Tini Clark, who described it as “staggeringly high”. Peachey, 35, was sentenced in December last year to six weeks of community detention and 80 hours’ community work on one charge of using a document for pecuniary advantage. Cossill had earlier admitted charges of forgery and using a document for pecuniary advantage, along with representative charges of obtaining by deception and theft by a person in a special relationship. ‘Gift cards, loans, a fake $1.3m mortgage application’ Cossill worked as the store manager from May 2018 until April 2024 and was responsible for day-to-day operations and about 270 employees. Peachey was the dry goods manager at the same supermarket from 2020 until May 2024, and reported directly to his wife. Between July 3, 2019, and March 8, 2024, Cossill used her position to obtain 37 loans, varying from $1000 to $12,000, to the value of $133,425 from the Pak’nSave Mill St bank account, without authorisation from the store owner. For each loan, she set the repayments favourable to her rather than the business. She has since paid back $36,945, and still owes $96,470. Between July 23, 2021, and April 3, 2024, Cossill obtained gift cards on 23 occasions, to the value of $61,500, which were charged back to the supermarket bank account. As the supermarket pays fees on the cards, the total of that theft was $69,979. In February 2024, Cossill asked the office manager to draft a letter to ASB. Cossill eventually signed it in that manager’s name using a made-up signature, and it was later sent to ASB for a mortgage application. Earlier that month, Peachey used his Pak’nSave email address to email ASB the couple’s supporting documents for their $1.3m mortgage. The attachments included previously altered payslips for them both, for three weeks in a row, deleting their staff home loan amounts. It also contained a false letter. For “undisclosed reasons”, the application was declined. Cossill eventually fessed up to her offending after being questioned by the store owner about the illegitimate gift cards. ‘The gambling addiction was the driver’ Given Alamyar’s unusually high discount request, Judge Clark, dutifully questioned each section of her submissions. After putting forward her 80% request, Judge Clark replied, “I have to say something about the level of discount. “It’s not realistic. “It’s not often I come across submissions seeking an 80% discount.” Alamyar told the judge she was not bound by the 2025 legislation which restricted the court to a maximum of 40% in discounts as this offending preceded that. The 80% comprised guilty plea, remorse, previous good character, gambling addiction, rehabilitation and Section 27 background issues. She also had an array of information to back that up; letters from C...
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