Real estate agent stole $66,000 to gamble

A former high-flying businessman has narrowly escaped jail after being brought to his knees by a gambling addiction.

Paul Romanos was a well-known real estate agent with an office in Lambton Quay, but yesterday he walked out of Wellington District Court a shamed man.

He will now have to live with family members, abide by a curfew and repay the tens of thousands of dollars that he stole from a body corporate he helped manage.

Outside court yesterday, he told The Dominion Post that his gambling addiction had ruined his life.

His lawyer, Val Nisbet, told the court Romanos was sorry: "His remorse ... has been palpable."

The former director of a Wellington real estate agency had earlier pleaded guilty to theft after stealing almost $66,000 from the body corporate over three years to finance his gambling.

He was sentenced to six months' community detention with a 7pm to 7am curfew, and was ordered to complete 200 hours of community work, nine months of supervision and gambling addiction treatment.

He will also have to repay the $65,976.13 that he stole.

Judge Mike Behrens said Romanos had "helped himself".

"In three years you offended, you basically I think sneakily took small amounts and I think that probably had been to do with the fact that your offending wasn't picked up by anyone else," he said.

"You are a problem gambler and you are not the first person and you won't be the last to do what you have done because of an inability to control gambling urges."

In 2000 Romanos was appointed secretary of a body corporate set up to run a new 16-apartment block in Allen St. Apartment owners paid levies to fund the body corporate and pay Romanos a stipend.

Romanos, operating Paul Romanos Real Estate, was soon in charge of about $100,000 a year, money used to pay for building services, including insurance, lift maintenance and rubbish removal.

He began taking money from the account in March 2005, but suspicions were not raised until three years later, when a lift maintenance company complained to body corporate chairman Dr Ken Kirkpatrick that $7000 worth of invoices were unpaid.

A Real Estate Agents Licensing Board investigation found Romanos had used the internet to make withdrawals of about $28,000, and had made at least 30 cash withdrawals totalling almost $9000. There were other unauthorised payments made to vendors.

The Real Estate Institute applied to the licensing board to have Romanos' real estate licence suspended.

Vernon Tamatea, a lawyer with the institute, said there was potential for property managers to rip off clients because "there is potential there for a lot of cash to come over the counter".

- © Fairfax NZ News