Tessa Grant, SkyCity and Hamilton school fraudster for $ 2.7 million denied release

A former SkyCity senior executive and Hamilton school principal who defrauded the organizations of $ 2.77 million has been denied parole.

Tessa Fiona Grant was jailed for six years after successfully appealing her original sentence of seven years and eight months handed down in 2017.

Grant was a CFO for SkyCity before rising through the ranks and serving as General Manager during his time at the Hamilton casino from 2006 to 2014.

From there she went to the Waikato Diocesan School for Girls in Hamilton, where she was a business manager, second only to the principal, with a salary of $ 125,000.

In less than a year he had stolen about $ 800,000.

Given his relatively sophisticated fraud, he used approximately $ 2.77 million to spend on a $ 900,000 estate, a $ 68,000 horse, and $ 55,000 on custom-designed jewelry.

He was able to carry out his robberies by forging checks at his SkyCity function and forged invoices while Hamilton High School performed work on new construction at the site.

She was eventually arrested after the school raised suspicions. After appearing in court, SkyCity also audited and discovered the theft, which initially stood at $ 1.26 million before skyrocketing to $ 1,980,922.01.

After being incarcerated, and serving a minimum 50 percent parole period, she was able to successfully argue for a sentence reduction by showing the court how much she had reimbursed: all of the school’s $ 795,000 and $ 1.4 million of the nearly $ 2 million stolen.

In his Sept. 1 decision, Grant’s attorney noted that Grant had to “dig deep to really understand the causes of his crime.”

Grant told the board that she had justified the SkyCity offense in her mind because she was a hard worker and the company was making a lot of money.

The board noted that what was not said was that it was motivated by greed.

His offense was justified in court due to the emotional and financial pressures that family members put on him, which included giving someone a place to live and making another member happy.

Grant told the board that he was easily swayed, but that no “concrete example” was given.

Grant was currently working in the prison cafe and helping with distribution. Once released, she intends to work on a farm moving animals.

The board noted that while it was clear that Grant had “thought a lot about herself,” it was less clear that she had made the necessary changes to avoid re-offending.

“While he presented elaborate explanations of his offense, he did not convince us that he really accepted what was really behind it.

“[Lawyer] used the word ‘greed’, Mrs Grant never did. As the judge pointed out [at sentencing], Mrs. Grant enjoyed the things and the lifestyle that the robbery provided. “

For those reasons, the board was not satisfied that she was ready to be released.

He ordered that a psychological risk assessment be conducted on Grant to focus on the treatment he has received and what he needs in the future to make a significant change.

They would see her again on parole in February of next year.