When Iesha Warren first started working for a trust that helped needy children and families, she was responsible for the payroll.

But, she quickly took on extra responsibilities that gave her access to Te Roopu Āwhina Ki Porirua Trust’s accounting and online banking services. And, before long, she was creating false supplier invoices which eventually led to her stealing $1 million, some of which was spent on gambling.

Now the 41-year-old has admitted a charge of obtaining by deception - a surprise plea that came just 10 days before she was due to stand trial in the Wellington District Court.

According to the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) which brought the charges, Warren’s offending occurred over a two-year period while she worked in the accounts department.

During that time the trust, which has run since the 70s providing welfare, health and education services to the Porirua community, lost a total of $1,063,674.77.

Lawyer Simon Mount KC represented the Serious Fraud Office at Friday's hearing in the Wellington District Court. Photo / Southland Times/Stuff

Warren began working there in June 2019, as a part-time financial administrator. Initially, she was responsible for payroll, but soon asked for more hours and took on responsibilities involving finance, rosters and managing staff. In order to carry out those tasks, she had access to the payroll, accounting and online banking services.

The trust’s income increased from $3.7 million in 2019 to $10.6m in the year to June 2020 thanks to funding from Oranga Tamariki to help at-risk children. The following year funding increased to $14m.

According to the summary, between December 2020 and June 2021, Warren made 79 transactions totalling $770,000.

The transactions required two authorisations before payment was made. Warren completed one authorisation, and two senior managers signed off the second one.

To get the false payments approved, she substituted her personal account in place of a genuine supplier’s.

The summary shows she also created false supplier invoices or changed the bank account numbers to those in her control.

It said management trusted Warren and signed off payments without seeing the invoices. And, if the manager did check the invoice, they only checked the amount, not the account it was being paid into.

Debit cards paid for online gambling services

Between December 2020 and June 2021, Warren made a further 185 transfers totalling $291,000.

Warren concealed those transactions by using genuine supplier names, but these didn’t require multiple authorisations, and she was able to process them directly.

Warren also used the trust’s debit cards to pay directly for online gambling services.

Some of the trust’s accounts were directly linked to Xero accounting software, which meant any unreconciled entries were raised with the company.

Of the 264 payments to Warren, she reconciled 231 of them, totalling $790,031.83.

The summary said Warren concealed the true nature of her gambling transactions, again by coding some transactions as genuine suppliers.

In total, she reconciled 353 fraudulent payments totalling $827,806.80. They were reconciled and accounted for as if they were legitimate trust expenses.

In May 2021, Kiwibank became suspicious and queried the large deposits paid into Warren’s account. It also sought an explanation.

Warren emailed Kiwibank pretending to be a former employee who’d also worked in accounts.

The email, which Warren cc’ed herself into, falsely claimed that she was the trust’s executive manager. Attached was a false contract using the CEO’s electronic signature, as well as 15 false invoices for service.

The CEO said he had never seen the document and did not sign it.

The summary noted Warren’s offending had a huge impact on the trust, which was forced to move its operations under Ngāti Toa to avoid losing funding.

Warren was due to face nine charges at her trial.

But on Friday Judge Jan Kelly withdrew eight charges, following agreement by the SFO’s lawyer Simon Mount KC and Warren’s lawyers Marty Robinson and Rufus Hancock.

She convicted Warren and remanded her on bail. She also ordered a pre-sentence report, a referral to restorative justice and a comprehensive alcohol and drug report.

Warren will be sentenced in July.

Catherine Hutton is an Open Justice reporter, based in Wellington. She has worked as a journalist for 20 years, including at the Waikato Times and RNZ. Most recently she was working as a media adviser at the Ministry of Justice.