Whiteman was charged with the latest offending last year and initially pleaded not guilty. She pleaded guilty to amended charges in April.
The latest offending
A police summary of facts said Whiteman advertised a Eufy security camera for sale on Facebook Marketplace on June 18, 2023, using the profile name “Tania”.
A would-be buyer agreed to pay $300. Whiteman provided her bank account name and number, and the payment was made that day.
Whiteman stopped communicating with the victim, and they never received a refund or the camera.
She did the same thing on June 20, 2023.
On August 20, 2023, she advertised Bose earbuds for sale – still using the profile name “Tania” – and received $219 for a sale, but again stopped communicating.
On October 5, 2023, she took $400 from one buyer then $650 from another four days later, on October 9 – both for motorcycle exhaust systems – before going quiet.
On May 13, 2024, a property in Mamaku was burgled of a large quantity of jewellery, including bangles, rings and watches.
The victim’s son posted on social media seeking information about the burglary and the whereabouts of the items.
Whiteman contacted him five days later, saying she had recently obtained two rings she believed might have been stolen in the burglary.
She sent him images of a ring, which he confirmed belonged to the burgled family. The rings were valued at about $500.
The summary said Whiteman asked about a reward for the two rings, but this was declined.
She said she would organise an associate to drop the rings off at the Tauranga Police Station to be returned, but never did.
Instead, she sold the rings at Cash Converters in Rotorua.
What happened at sentencing
Whiteman’s lawyer, Ryan Nicholson, said she came to court on Tuesday with $500 to offer as reparation to her victims.
Judge Skellern pointed out she still owed more than $149,000 for her previous offending – relating to 10 previous dishonesty convictions.
She noted Whiteman had written remorseful letters, explaining her offending was because she needed money to travel to Christchurch to see her ill mother.
Judge Skellern said Whiteman mentioned she had been going through hard times with her mother’s illness and her brother dying in a workplace accident.
The judge was not convinced the timing of Whiteman’s family’s hardships coincided with her latest offending.
She also was not sure Whiteman was genuinely remorseful, saying it was more that she was sorry about the situation she found herself in.
“There does seem to be a lot of excuses Ms Whiteman puts forward.”
Whiteman suggested through her lawyer she could live at home with her fiancé and serve a home detention sentence, but Judge Skellern agreed with police concerns that the address was not appropriate, given she lived with her fiancé at the time of the offending.
Letters of support were received from her fiancé and the mother of a child Whiteman cares for, with the latter saying Whiteman was reliable and a good caregiver.
Judge Skellern agreed with pre-sentence reports that the best sentencing option was imprisonment.
She said she would also make reparation orders on all matters.
Whiteman will be subject to six months’ conditions with Community Probation following her release from prison.
Previous offending
Whiteman was jailed in 2016 for two years and nine months after admitting stealing more than $300,000 from the business that employed her at the time.
The Rotorua Daily Post reported she was employed as an accounts and payroll administrator at a Rotorua flooring business, and her offending nearly bankrupted it.
Less than a year after being released from that jail sentence, she again tried to buy items in her previous employer’s name. She was jailed for a further two months.
The Rotorua Daily Post reported in June 2021 that she was sentenced to home detention for more dishonesty offending and was sentenced again in May 2022 for three counts of breaching that home detention sentence.
Kelly Makiha is a senior journalist who has reported for the Rotorua Daily Post for more than 25 years, covering mainly police, court, human interest and social issues.
