• Tania Joy Whiteman admitted scamming Facebook Marketplace users and selling stolen jewellery.
• Whiteman pleaded guilty to five counts of accessing a computer system for dishonest purposes.
• She was remanded on bail for sentencing on August 5 by Judge John McDonald.

A woman who scammed Facebook Marketplace users has admitted taking hundreds of dollars off buyers before ghosting them and failing to hand over goods.

Tania Joy Whiteman, 46, from Rotorua, also tried to scam a burglary victim by responding to their online pleas on the whereabouts of stolen jewellery and asking for a reward for its return. When she learned there was no reward, she sold the stolen jewellery.

Whiteman has pleaded guilty to five counts of accessing a computer system for dishonest purposes and one charge of receiving stolen property valued between $500 and $1000.

Tania Malcolm, now Tania Whiteman, when she was sentenced in 2016.

The Rotorua Daily Post reported on Whiteman, who was then known as Tania Malcolm, in 2016 after she admitted stealing $305,000 from her employer where she worked in accounts. At that time, she was jailed for two years and nine months.

Whiteman was charged with the latest offending last year and initially pleaded not guilty. She pleaded guilty to amended charges on Tuesday when she appeared before Judge John McDonald.

A police summary said Whiteman advertised a Eufy security camera for sale on Facebook Marketplace on June 18, 2023, using the profile name “Tania”.

A would-be buyer agreed to pay $300. Whiteman provided her bank account name and number, and the payment was made that day.

Whiteman stopped communicating with the victim, and they never received a refund.

She did the same thing on June 20, 2023.

On August 20, 2023, she advertised Bose earbuds for sale - still using the profile name “Tania” - and received $219 for a sale, but again stopped communicating.

On October 5, 2023, she took $400 from a buyer for a motorcycle exhaust system and took another $650 on October 9, 2023, for a motorbike exhaust system.

She stopped communicating with the victims on both occasions.

On May 13, 2024, a property on Matai St in Mamaku was burgled of a large quantity of jewellery, including bangles, rings and watches.

The victim’s son posted on social media seeking information about the burglary and the whereabouts of the items.

On May 17, 2024, White contacted the victim’s son, saying she had recently obtained two rings she believed might have been stolen in the burglary.

She sent the victim’s son images of the ring, which he confirmed belonged to the burgled family. The rings were valued at about $500.

The summary said Whiteman then asked about a reward for the two rings, but it was declined. She accepted and claimed she would organise an associate to drop the rings off at the Tauranga police station to be returned, but never did.

Instead, she sold the rings to Cash Converters in Rotorua, the summary said.

Her lawyer, Des O’Connor, opposed a media application to take her photograph in court, saying it should not be allowed because it was not a sentencing hearing.

But Judge McDonald said that did not matter because the media could make and would likely be granted an application at a defendant’s first appearance.

“The press are entitled to be here, entitled to report on the matters and are entitled to take photographs.”

Previous offending

Whiteman, previously known by her former married name Tania Malcolm, was jailed in 2016 for two years and nine months after admitting stealing more than $300,000 from her then-employer.

The Rotorua Daily Post reported at the time she was employed as an accounts and payroll administrator at a Rotorua flooring business, and her offending nearly bankrupted it.

Tania Whiteman at one of her court appearances relating to previous offending.

Less than a year after being released from that jail sentence, she again tried to buy items in her previous employer’s name. She was jailed for a further two months.

The Rotorua Daily Post reported in June 2021 that she was sentenced to home detention for more dishonesty offending and was sentenced again in May 2022 for three counts of breaching that home detention sentence.

Judge McDonald said Whiteman could go to jail for her latest offending and said options would remain open.

He remanded her on bail to reappear for sentencing on August 5.

Kelly Makiha is a senior journalist who has reported for the Rotorua Daily Post for more than 25 years, covering mainly police, court, human interest and social issues.