A salesman has been acquitted of charges of theft and embezzlement in the Supreme Court.
Appearing before Lord Chief Justice Paulsen, Kevini Vaifo’ou was acquitted by Lord Chief Justice Paulsen after the charges were unproven.
Vaifo’ou was part of a group of three employees of Leiola Group Ltd who were accused of being engaged in a joint criminal enterprise to steal from the company. The other accused were Katalau Vea’ilu and Lupi Fonua.
The indictment alleged that in 2013 Vaifo’ou, together with Vea’ilu and Fonua embezzled $TP81,401 from Leiola. They were charged with theft of the same amount. The prosecution alleged the money had been taken from 32 cash sales to 23 Chinese stores. The amount involved was later reduced to $TP48,382 and the number of sales and stores involved. A third charge of falsification of accounts was dropped.
Vaifo’ou and Vea’ilu were employed to sell cigarettes and phone cards, mainly to Chinese retail stores. They would visit stores and if the store needed cigarettes or phone cards they would hand over the goods along with an invoice. In most cases they were paid immediately in cash.
In his report on the case, Lord Chief Justice Paulsen said the money and a copy of the invoice were returned to Leiola’s office and given to Fonua. She would fraudulently enter the transaction in Leiola’s database as a credit sale and distribute the money to herself, Vea’ilu, Vaifo’ou and another employee, Paea Savou.
Fonua, Veaiilu and Savou have already been dealt with by the court.
As far as Leiola was concerned the retail stores owed a debt but in fact they had paid.
Fonua, Vea’ily and Savou had already been dealt with by the court.
Because the company accounts appeared to be balanced out at the end of each month, the losses were not noticed for a long time. Eventually, however, the company’s accountant, Arleen Talavera, began to suspect something was wrong. When she approached retail stores they claimed they had made payments not shown in Leiola’s records. They had also been issued invoices with numbers that did not match Leiola’s records.
Vea’ilu told the court that at the end of each day it was usually Fonua who would prepare the summary of the day’s sales. After it became apparent that the thefts were being investigated, Vea’ilu met with the managing director of Leiola’s parent company, John Paul Chapman and told him that he had lost the money.
Following this the general manager of Leiola, Mr. Viliami Takau, was informed and Vea’ilu was dismissed. Vea’ilu said Chapman was financially supporting Vaifo’ou, who is his cousin. He denied that he had told Chapman that Vaifo’ou was involved because he hoped the managing director would cover up the theft if he thought his relative was involved.
The prosecution relied on proving that a number of sales had involved the theft of cash paid by shop keepers and faked receipts and financial records being kept.
However, Lord Chief Justice Paulsen said Talavara’s analysis was intended for internal company purposes and not a criminal prosecution.
“Her enquires were not as thorough as one would expect in a criminal case, but she cannot be criticised for that,” the judge said.
“There should have been independent expert analysis of the accounts.”
Mr Justice Paulsen found that the evidence gathered from store owners was insufficient and that the evidence from the shopkeepers who testified in court was not adequate to support the prosecution’s case.
In his summing up, the judge said he did not accept the evidence presented by Vea’ilu and said the prosecution had failed to prove that Vaifo’ou had been involved in or took any money from the company.
The main points
- A salesman has been acquitted of charges of theft and embezzlement in the Supreme Court.
- Appearing before Lord Chief Justice Paulsen, Kevini Vaifo’ou was acquitted by Lord Chief Justice Paulsen after the charges were unproven.
- Vaifo’ou was part of a group of three employees of Leiola Group Ltd who were accused of being engaged in a joint criminal enterprise to steal from the company. The other accused were Katalau Vea’ilu and Lupi Fonua.
- The indictment alleged that in 2013 Vaifo’ou, together with Vea’ilu and Fonua embezzled or stole $TP81,401 from Leiola.
