Media Release

13 June 2013

Sentences imposed on pair for dairy industry fraud

Paul Michael Normington (33) and Jin Weifeng (28) have been sentenced in the Auckland District Court today for Crimes Act and Secret Commissions Act offences laid by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO).

Mr Normington has been sentenced to 15 months’ imprisonment and Mr Weifeng has been sentenced to five months’ home detention and ordered to pay $25,000 reparation.

Together the pair were facing 33 charges, Mr Normington (17 charges) and Mr Weifeng (11 charges), of theft, dishonestly using a document and taking secret commissions. Mr Normington also faced a charge of accessing a computer system for dishonest purpose.

The pair pled guilty late last year to participating in a number of transactions while working for their former employer, the Sutton Group (Sutton). Mr Normington and Mr Weifeng combined to defraud Sutton either by the creation of false invoices, theft of product or by receiving secret commissions from a supplier of product to Sutton.

During the course of the investigation, the SFO discovered that Mr Normington also copied electronic files from the Sutton server for his own benefit to assist him starting his own business in competition with Sutton.

Acting SFO Chief Executive, Simon McArley said, “The charges laid against Mr Normington and Mr Weifeng halted the potential for significantly more offending and losses within the dairy industry, and the sentencing today also indicates the importance of those charges. With cooperation from the public and industry experts, we will continue to actively investigate fraud at its earliest possible opportunity to minimise the extent of losses.”

ENDS

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