Employer blasts dental centre receptionist Annette Higgins who stole $9,802

PUBLISHED: 07:43 GMT, 8 October 2015 | UPDATED: 09:51 GMT, 8 October 2015

An alcoholic dental centre receptionist was accused of having ‘no remorse’ after being sentenced to community work, community detention and supervision when found guilty of stealing $9,802 from her employer.

Stuff.com reports that Annette Myra Higgins, 45, from Cambridge in New Zealand had control of accounts and banking for Duke Street Dental Care, and was found guilty of false accounting and theft by a person in a special relationship. The crimes took place between December 2011 and November 2012.

In a victim impact statement, her former employer, dentist Barbara Cater, told of her sense of betrayal once Higgins’ deceitfulness had been uncovered.

‘No remorse, no apology was forthcoming … I believed in you. That trust was destroyed,’ Cater said in her statement.

During an investigation that lasted for 11 months numerous transactions were discovered where Higgins allegedly stole a total of $25,222.50 from the dental centre business. That amount was later changed to $9,802 during the course of the trial.

On Thursday Higgins was sentenced to 180 hours of community work, six months of community detention and nine months’ supervision.

Higgins will also have to pay $9,802 in reparation to Cater who she had been working for since early 2011.

Cater had initially believed that the business was losing money, because of the global financial crisis.

Higgins also pleaded guilty to another charge of theft of different medicines worth nearly $500 that belonged to an elderly Salvation Army client that Higgins was caring for on a part-time basis.

 Source: Employer blasts dental centre receptionist Annette Higgins who stole $9,802 | Daily Mail Online