A travel agent used the company account for almost $15,000 of unauthorised spending, including $2000 in cleaning services for his own home and almost $13,000 on fuel and groceries.

Now Lee Harris has to pay it all back, plus $6000 in penalties and legal costs, despite his claims the breaches were not deliberate.

The former director of operations at the New Zealand office of UK-based corporate and marine travel firm, Blue Marine Travel, preferred not to comment when approached by NZME, other than to say there was always two sides to a story.

However, Harris had earlier apologised, saying he was ashamed of his actions and was sorry for all he had done.

He explained during an investigation meeting as part of the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) process, that as a director of the company, he felt he had certain rights which the ERA said extended far beyond what his employment agreement provided.

This included him obtaining a fuel card, which he used not only to fill his vehicle but also his wife’s. In addition, he used it buy groceries.

To avoid scrutiny of his expenditure on the fuel card, Harris led Blue Marine to believe the charges relating to Z Energy were “electricity charges for the office”, ERA member Geoff O’Sullivan said in his decision, which was released late last month.

Harris said in his LinkedIn profile that he was a travel professional with more than 27 years of experience in marine and corporate travel.

He had worked as a consultant in the UK for Blue Marine Travel before he moved with his family to New Zealand five years ago.

Harris became Blue Marine’s New Zealand director of operations, reporting to the director, who was also managing director of Blue Marine’s parent company in the United Kingdom, Lee Baldwin, before he resigned last September.

Blue Marine Travel is a privately owned marine travel consultancy handling corporate and marine travel.

The employment agreement included a condition that authorised work-related expenses would be reimbursed by Blue Marine provided there was proof of purchase and confirmation the expense had been incurred in carrying out employment-related duties.

Financial Irregularities

Blue Marine became concerned about some financial irregularities that began to show up, prompting a new agreement with Harris in August last year.

The agreement provided among other things that Blue Marine had started a disciplinary process over what it said were the payment irregularities.

A clause in the agreement stated that Harris was to return all property that belonged to the employer, including computers and phones, any information stored electronically and any passcodes or passwords.

The company alleged Harris hadn’t complied with this provision of the agreement because when the computers were finally returned, they were wiped and reset to factory settings.

“Information removed from the computers undoubtedly included information Blue Marine was entitled to,” O’Sullivan said.

He said Harris confirmed the breaches occurred but argued he was not required to return the phone because it was broken, and in any event, it was his.

Blue Marine had engaged a commercial cleaning firm to clean its office premises.

The employer then became aware that some invoices from the cleaning company included details of office cleaning alongside the cleaning of Harris’ house.

UK-based Blue Marine Travel specialises in corporate and marine travel. Photo / 123rf

The ERA said that on two occasions, in October and November 2022, invoices forwarded to Blue Marine had the reference to Harris’s house deleted when previous invoices had shown itemised house cleaning at his home.

“It became clear that Mr Harris had arranged for the invoices to be changed so as not to record the cleaning of his house,” O’Sullivan said, adding that Harris’s explanation as to why this had occurrei was unsatisfactory.

However, what was clear and accepted by Harris was that Blue Marine had never agreed to pay for his cleaning.

“Eventually, Blue Marine discovered that Z Energy was not and had never been an electricity company in New Zealand,” O’Sullivan said.

Harris admitted the deception and it therefore followed that all the money had to be repaid.

“The only justification that Mr Harris put forward for his actions, was his belief that he was entitled to such perks because he was the director of the company and, having spoken to other company directors with expense accounts, he felt he should have one too,” O’Sullivan said.

He found that Blue Marine Travel had established that Harris was guilty of the breaches and ordered him to repay $2075 in housecleaning charges, plus $12,894 in expenditure rung up on the fuel card.

Harris was ordered to pay a $1500 penalty for the breaches, plus costs of $4500, as a contribution towards Blue Marine’s legal costs.

Harris’ request for non-publication of the decision was also denied. He said on his LinkedIn profile that he planned to return to the UK to be with family and friends again.

Blue Marine Travel confirmed that some of the matters considered by the ERA were referred to the police before the investigation meeting.

Lee Baldwin told NZME the company was happy with the outcome of that meeting.

Tracy Neal is a Nelson-based Open Justice reporter at NZME. She was previously RNZ’s regional reporter in Nelson-Marlborough and has covered general news, including court and local government for the Nelson Mail.