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A former private secretary to the Maori king who underwent paid gastric bypass surgery by cheating Waikato Tainui has been sentenced to house arrest on fraud charges brought by the Serious Fraud Office.
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Te Rangihiroa Whakaruru, 57, was ordered to serve house arrest for embezzling funds to pay for her weight loss surgery. Source: 1 NEWS
Te Rangihiroa Whakaruru, 57, appeared in Auckland District Court after pleading guilty in December to five counts of obtaining by deception and one of providing false or misleading information in formal interviews with the OFS in 2019.
Judge Ema Aitken described the circumstances of the crime.
Whakaruru asked Mercy Hospital in Auckland to issue an invoice to a charitable trust linked to King Tuheitia even though it was Whakaruru who underwent stomach surgery in 2016.
Unknowingly, Waikato Tainui had approved additional funding for King Tuheitia’s health services during that period, who was well known for his poor health. Finally, he would undergo a kidney transplant operation.
Judge Aitken said the crime was “clearly premeditated” as Whakaruru relied on his mana, his position, and his knowledge of the king’s health.
She told Whakaruru that the rape was serious “not out of necessity, but potentially out of greed.”
He was looking at the barrel of a jail sentence, but Judge Aitken said there was no point in sending a 57-year-old man to jail.
Whakaruru was sentenced to 12 months of home detention and must serve 300 hours of community service.
A reparation order for $ 110,788 plus an additional $ 5000 was also made to Waikato Tainui for costs incurred to deal with the “consequences” of the crime.
