Home detention and more for pokie money theft

The former manager of two Hamilton bars was today sentenced to nine months home detention and 200 hours of community service for stealing more than $90,000 of gaming machine money from her employer.

Jane Bridget Hamilton, 38, cleaner of Hamilton, was also ordered to make reparation of $30,000 at $240 per week when she appeared for sentence in Hamilton District Court. She pleaded guilty in March to two charges of theft by a person in a special relationship and two of false accounting.

The Department of Internal Affairs said Hamilton was employed as bar manager at The Riv in the Clyde Street shopping centre and Still Working in Chartwell. The bars’ owner had to regularly inject cash into his business to maintain cash flow and meet gaming machine banking obligations. A review of gambling operations revealed that over four years Hamilton had falsified entries in gaming machine float records to show lesser takings, allowing her to take a total of $91,679 in amounts ranging from $200 to $1000 at a time.

Hamilton told gambling inspectors she had spent the money on her lifestyle and had nothing to show for it.

Acting Gambling Compliance Director, Raj Krishnan, said the bar owner reported the thefts to the Department.

“We monitor all gaming machine operations in pubs and clubs to ensure the accurate accounting of money and would have been able to confirm how much money would have been available for banking to the trust which operated the gaming machines. In this case, the venue operator met his banking obligations under the Gambling Act by making up the shortfalls in ‘takings’ so the community would not have missed out on grant money. But the bar owner is considerably out of pocket.”

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