Sydney media agency executive sentenced to home detention after 11 fraud convictions
Wynyard
Former director and owner of The Media Counsel Glenda Wynyard has been sentenced to home detention after being convicted in an Auckland court of 11 counts of fraud last month.
Wynyard currently works at Sydney based independent agency Chaos Media, although her convictions date back to her activity with her own agency The Media Counsel in 2008 and 2009 in New Zealand.
According to a report in the New Zealand Herald, despite being urged by the Crown to lock up Wynyard, Judge Brooke Gibson opted for eight months of home detention, a sentence which has been appealed by defence counsel Paul Davison QC on all but three of the charges.
Davison has also applied for bail on Wynyard’s behalf so she can rejoin her family in Australia. Judge Gibson has reserved his decision until this afternoon on that matter.
Last month, the court found that Wynyard had used payments that were meant to be given to her accredited agency Carat to repay another debtor of The Media Counsel.
She was also convicted of presenting cheques she knew would not be honoured and providing false and misleading information to New Zealand’s Print Media Accreditation Authority.
According to the NZ Herald the Crown put the loss to Aegis at more than $650,000, but that was disputed by the defence. A report from Radio New Zealand News said a creditor was left $452,000 out of pocket.
Judge Gibson said ordering reparation would be pointless, reported the NZ Herald, with the matter best pursued through the civil courts.
The paper quoted defence counsel Davison as saying the matter was a blip on Wynyard’s flawless record: “One can hardly read letters written by family and not readily appreciate this is a remarkable woman.
“Her children are a great credit to her and her family have been through a tremendous amount through her business collapse.”
“The judge agreed she was “clearly a talented person” and put the offending down to pressure rather than material greed.”
Chaos Media CEO David Lewis said: “Following today’s sentencing Ms Wynyard’s legal counsel have filed an appeal challenging the District Court’s findings and the entry of convictions. Ms Wynyard is now represented by Mr Paul Davison QC, one of New Zealand’s leading and senior Queen’s Counsel, as well as original trial counsel, Ms Rachael Reed.
“Ms Wynyard’s appeal is founded on legal advice that the core findings of the District Court Judge are susceptible to challenge on a legal and factual basis. Suffice to say, Ms Wynyard maintains she is innocent of criminal wrongdoing and Chaos Media remains supportive of Ms Wynyard and the advice offered by her legal team. There was no suggestion whatsoever or allegation that she had misappropriated any money for her own personal use and, contrary to statements elsewhere, she was not found to have defrauded any client.”
Miranda Ward worked for Mumbrella from 2013 to 2017, eventually becoming deputy editor. Miranda joined Mumbrella in September 2013 from Sky News.
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Think about how much output, shell deliver now. Plenty of time for indepth media analysis
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Guilty of 11 charges of fraud but only home detention?? She got off very lightly.
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sounds like you know her Concerned.
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I was exposed to Glenda and The Media Counsel in 2006-2009. At that time I had not met a more passionate advocate for the media industry in NZ. I often sat on the other side of the negotiation table, she was tough, ballsy and worked bloody hard for her clients. I enjoyed every negotiation. I was aware of allegations then, haven’t seen nor spoken with her since my return back to Australia and genuinely hope she comes out the other side unscathed. Good to see she’s supported.
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Two clients of a certain large ‘government business enterprise’ managed to defraud said enterprise of about the same amount as Ms Wynyard. They got seven years jail each, eligible for parole in 2017. I’m sure they would have settled for 8 months home detention.
Maybe they should have defrauded media firms rather than the government.
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