Former retail operations manager at Lake Taupō Hospice Trust, Mark Wisniewski, 64, has been sentenced to 16 months in prison for his theft of just over $62,000 from the organisation between 2016 and 2024.
While his lawyer Mark Kirkeby argued for home detention if certain sentencing discounts were applied, Judge Jo Wickliffe ultimately did not accept Wisniewski qualified for the full range his counsel advanced.
She questioned whether Wisniewski’s stated remorse was genuine and said the harm done to the image of Lake Taupō Hospice Trust was significant.
This needed to be considered in Wisniewski’s sentence, she said, “as is the need for me to promote in you your sense of responsibility and an acknowledgement of the harm, because I'm not sure that you understand that.”
