Post date: May 18, 2012 2:41:54 PM
A New Zealand court finds Kara Hurring guilty of theft after she ran away when a bank mistakenly put US $7 million dollars into her partner's account. Sunita Rappai reports.
NEW ZEALAND-RUNAWAY VERDICT - Guilty on all charges - the woman dubbed New Zealand's runaway millionaire is convicted of money laundering, dishonesty and theft.
Kara Hurring had run away with her partner, Leo Gao, after local bank Westpac deposited $10 million NZ dollars or 7 million US dollars into his account by mistake.
Hurring, who had pleaded not guilty was convicted on 30 counts.
Twenty-five of them related to a four-day shopping spree of NZ$11000 on Gao's bank card, before departing for China.
Two charges of money laundering were the most serious after Hurring put more than $340,000 NZ dollars through a Macau casino for Gao.
But her lawyer said her offences were not as bad as Gao's.
He is currently awaiting trial in Auckland facing 17 charges of money laundering and theft.
DEFENCE LAWYER, SIMON LANCE, SAYING: (CAMERA REMAINS ON HURRING)
"Well, she'll be sentenced on a lesser basis than, for example, Mr Gao, because the amounts of money that she's said to be involved in are obviously significantly less."
Hurring, who said she was looking forward to seeing her children, remains on bail until her sentencing in August.
Sunita Rappai, Reuters