University of Otago scammer Gavin Bainbridge reveals where the money went

When a judge sentenced a Dunedin couple to house arrest earlier this month, he questioned where the money they had stolen from the University of Otago had gone. Gavin Bainbridge tells Rob Kidd where the cash went and why they pleaded guilty.

A former senior manager who defrauded the University of Otago out of more than $ 220,000 says he is not the “Attila the Hun” figure that his former colleagues claimed.

Gavin Marcus Bainbridge, 50, and his wife Karen, 47, were each sentenced to 10 months of home detention this month in Dunedin District Court for causing losses through deception.

While Bainbridge, a church-attending Christian and award-winning scout leader, said it was “a miracle” that they avoided incarceration, he told the Otago Daily Times the possibility was still floating around.

The family had been evicted from their rental property, an elevated location with panoramic views of St Clair.

They recently found new accommodation on the outskirts of Dunedin, but if the probationary period fails, they will have no choice but to serve their sentences in jail.

“I’m not afraid of going to prison. I’m more concerned about where my kids are going,” Bainbridge said.

After eight years working and living in Australia, the role of head of information systems at the university had been too good to turn down.

Bainbridge said it was, ironically, the prospect of her children’s tertiary education that made her the most attractive.

The 2017 homecoming soon turned into a nightmare.

At sentencing, the court heard that Ms. Bainbridge established a company called Studio-Us under her maiden name, Morton, in October 2018.

Three months later, Mr. Bainbridge established the company as a new creditor and supplier to the university.

Over the next six months, invoices were filed with the university’s accreditation department and $ 227,700 was paid to Studio-Us.

The firm did not provide work, according to a factual summary.

Mr. Bainbridge vehemently rejected the suggestion that the company had been a premeditated attempt to defraud his workplace.

He said the University of Otago e-learning content was “bullshit” and that the only company in the country that could address that did not respond to his approaches.

The decision to establish Studio-Us was an acknowledgment of a gap in the market, and the university was the first of several potential clients to be targeted, Bainbridge said.

Contrary to what the court heard, it said that some of the proposed projects had been delivered by a subcontractor.

Bainbridge also claimed that he raised the conflict of interest in writing with his boss, again a contradiction of the university’s version of events.

“They just shrugged.”

Mr. Bainbridge agreed that he paid for TI’s work upfront, which was a departure from protocol, but said it was something everyone did to push projects forward.

The decision to plead guilty to the charge came after conversations with attorneys who warned the couple that they could be jailed for up to five years if found guilty.

“From a risk perspective, we could argue and say there was no criminal intent, but if a jury of our peers could understand … that’s what it came down to,” Bainbridge said.

“Do I stay true to my principles and speak the truth at the risk of being sent to prison for three years with my wife and leaving my children without parents, or putting up with it and getting house arrest and hopefully this nightmare Will it be over in 12 months? “

He struggled with the idea of ​​guilt, of being a criminal.

“I am not guilty, we are responsible, but not to the extent that it came out,” he said.

The director of operations at the University of Otago, Stephen Willis, had a different opinion.

A victim impact statement that he read in court referred to Mr. Bainbridge as “a noxious weed that we have removed from our yard.”

Other staff members, whose opinions he had collected, spoke of the accused as a manipulative and uncompromising boss.

“He was brutal in his quick appraisals of people, calling some of them idiots and muppets to their faces or in meetings behind their backs,” said one.

Bainbridge said he was not surprised by the verbal lashing he received at the dock, but rejected many of the claims.

“This characterization of Attila the Hun, the ‘culture of fear’ … I can see how people can be afraid, but the key factor was competition. It wasn’t trying to stand on people with a big stick and hit them on the head.”

Brainbridge believed that his drive could have come as a shock to many of the 70 members of his team who were not used to such a proactive approach.

“I was someone who did things,” he said.

“If I had chosen to go to college to do nothing, to sit on my butt, I could have done it … There are probably only two or three managers cut from the same fabric as me. Most of them were suits, just people who talked a lot but it wasn’t really doing anything. “

He calculated that in his short time in college he had “easily saved a million.”

Judge Michael Turner, who sentenced the Bainbridges, questioned where the $ 227,700 had gone, in addition to the $ 80,000 refunded.

While the shortfall was expressed as a mystery in court, Bainbridge was eager to clear it up.

“A shoebox full of money somewhere? That’s not the case,” he said.

About half had been used to pay taxes and subcontractors.

The only extravagance, he told the ODT, was a family trip to the United States.

When the criminal charges were filed, the couple were unemployed and had to use the rest of the cash for their basic needs until they were eligible for a benefit, Bainbridge said.

He wanted to pay the money back, but everything they had was tied up in Australian retirement accounts and could not be withdrawn, the court heard.

Last year, when he turned 49, he was abruptly told to pack his personal items and left college.

“I was not expecting any criminal proceedings. I was expecting a contract process,” Bainbridge said.

A year later, he turned 50 in his first week of home detention.

The sentence restrictions meant that he could no longer attend church, but the congregation’s response encouraged him.

People had called saying they were praying for him.

It was “humiliating,” Bainbridge said.

As for what the future held, he was resigned to the fact that he would never work in the corporate or IT world again, despite receiving calls for support from former employers.

He would probably retrain in a trade.

“I’m going to have to restart my life,” he said.

“I have enough head on my shoulders to do something else.”

A spokeswoman for the University of Otago said the university supported the ruling handed down by Judge Turner.

Bainbridge’s offense had deeply affected staff and betrayed the university’s trust, he said.

“The facts of the crime were stated very clearly in court and admitted by Mr. Bainbridge through his guilty plea.

“The university is completely satisfied with the internal and external research on the subject.”