A couple who defrauded Otago University of more than $200,000 have avoided jail.
Photo: RNZ / Nate McKinnon
Gavin Marcus Bainbridge was employed as a senior manager in the university's IT department from 2017 until about 2020.
In October 2018 his 47-year-old wife, Karen Ailsa Bainbridge, set up a company called Studio-US, designed to look like an agency creating online software, and bank accounts under her maiden name - Karen Morton.
The pair appeared in the Dunedin District Court for sentencing this afternoon.
While employed at the university, Bainbridge had the ability to authorise purchases of up to $50,000 per invoice.
In January last year, the 49-year-old set up Studio-Us as a creditor and supplier to the university without disclosing his conflict of interest in the company.
From March the couple began defrauding the university of thousands of dollars.
On 13 March an invoice labelled "E-learning analysis and design" was sent from Karen Bainbridge to her husband totalling $13,800.
He sent it to the university's crediting team and it was paid into Studio-Us' bank account.
That was repeated on 28 March.
The pair escalated the fraud on 16 August with three invoices each claiming $48,300.
By the time the pair's theft was uncovered they had stolen $227,700 over seven months.
They refused to explain their offending when interviewed by police.
In a victim impact statement the university's chief operating officer, Stephen Willis, said Bainbridge had caused serious harm to the staff of the university.
"I refer to Bainbridge as a noxious weed that we have removed from our garden. A garden that will one day flourish again with care and time. It is my hope this noxious weed is not given the ground and conditions to take root again and do harm somewhere else."
Judge Michael Turner told the couple it was finely balanced between sentencing them to jail and home detention.
"This is a very marginal case. In the end I have determined a sentence of home detention couplef with community work does meet the purposes and principles of sentencing here."
The pair had repaid $80,000 to the university but more than $170,000 remained outstanding after audit costs were considered.
They were both sentenced to 10 months' home detention with 400 hours of community work - the maximum penalty for each sentence.
They only had to pay an additional sum of $2800 reparation due to their limited means, though Judge Turner cautioned the pair that civil proceedings could be pursued by the university and it was likely.
Outside court the couple refused to comment on the sentence and the whereabouts of the remainder of the stolen money.