Gambling Addiction: Cop's thieving wife sentenced

Cop's thieving wife sentenced on more charges
By Jamie Morton

A police detective's wife whose secret gambling addiction brought her family to financial "ruin" has been sentenced for a second time over thefts she committed while working at a Tauranga bank.

Vicki Lee McCaskie, the 45-year-old wife of Tauranga police officer Rob McCaskie, wiped away tears in Tauranga District Court yesterday as she faced charges brought to light only when another victim learned she had been swindled of $41,000 after reading a newspaper article about McCaskie's previous thefts.

Judge Thomas Ingram sentenced McCaskie to four months' home detention and 200 hours of community work, and ordered her pay back the money.

Last November, McCaskie was sentenced to five months' home detention for stealing about $25,500 from an 84-year-old customer and an ATM machine while working at Westpac Bank's Cherrywood Branch in 2009 and last year.

Between July 2 and October 19, McCaskie made numerous withdrawals from the elderly woman's two bank accounts - one totalling almost $10,000.

But when confronted, she told her victim she had withdrawn the money to buy bonus bonds.

After she complained, McCaskie admitted to police that she had also helped herself to $8000 from the bank's ATM cash float between March and May this year and tried to cover the losses by holding a false balance in her teller's cash records.

The bank dismissed her on the day of the interview.

But her latest deception was not revealed until another customer, a 54-year-old woman, read about McCaskie's offending in a newspaper and checked her bank account to find a number of large unauthorised cash withdrawals.

An audit of her two accounts found a dozen questionable withdrawals.

One withdrawal slip for $2000 had been changed to read $3000 and none of the other 11 withdrawal vouchers was completed by the victim.

In June, McCaskie admitted making eight fraudulent cash withdrawals between December 3, 2009 and April 21.

She told police she had a bad gambling addiction and used the cash to cover debt so her family would not find out.

Yesterday, her lawyer Glenn Dixon said McCaskie was "petrified" but accepted she should have disclosed her offending "from the outset".

Mr Dixon said McCaskie was dismissed from her job at a childcare centre after she was arrested.

"She was employed at the time of her arrest, but regrettably, her employer had to let her go."

In sentencing, Judge Ingram said her husband had put forward all of his finances before his resources were "exhausted" and described her breach of trust as "very considerable".

Westpac spokesman Chris Mirams said the bank had worked closely with the customer, who had been reimbursed.

By Jamie Morton