New Zealand PM's aide quits after prostitute reveals he had been secretly recording sex workers and taking intimate photos of other women
An aide of New Zealand 's Prime Minister has resigned after being accused of secretly taping sex workers without consent.
Senior aide Michael Forbes resigned after a local news outlet alleged he covertly recorded audio of sessions with sex workers and secretly photographed women at the gym.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said he was 'shocked' - but it was unclear whether Forbes had broken the law.
Luxon has now floated some new privacy laws in the wake of the scandal.
'If you're a New Zealander you ask quite legitimate questions about how does this behaviour happen, and is it legal or illegal,' he told reporters on Thursday.
'I have that same reaction to it as well.'
Luxon flagged new privacy laws could be drafted to clear up the legal grey area.
Forbes - who was Luxon's deputy chief press secretary - apologised in a statement sent to media.
'I want to offer my sincerest apologies to the women I have harmed,' he said.
The scandal came to light after a sex worker noticed Forbes's phone was recording audio while he took a shower, according to an investigation published Wednesday by New Zealand news outlet Stuff.
Forbes phone was then found to contain photos of women in compromising positions at the gym, and a video shot through a window showing women getting dressed at night, Stuff reported.
'In the past, I was in a downward spiral due to unresolved trauma and stress, and when confronted with the impacts of my behaviour a year ago, I sought professional help, which is something I wish I had done much earlier,' Forbes said in a statement.
'What I failed to do then was make a genuine attempt to apologise.'
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On the surface, Katherine Greenall seemed like any hard-working single mum holding down a full-time job while caring for two young children. But behind-the-scenes, 'manipulative' Greenall had been leading a secret life, swindling nearly half a million pounds from her trusting employers to fund her luxury lifestyle. The 29-year-old, from St Helens near Liverpool, was reduced to 'tears' this month as she was jailed for 28 months for defrauding her employer of £440k. Greenall - called 'Katie' by friends and colleagues - had masterminded a 'sophisticated' and 'calculated' fraud operation in which she faked invoices, hid payments in bulk transfers, and diverted funds under the guise of legitimate business transactions. And what remains even more shocking is what the glamorous mother-of-two spent the eye-watering sum on. While some could show a modicum of sympathy for a mother who, in a moment of madness, turned to petty crime in an effort trying to make ends meet - this was certainly not the case with Greenall. Her ill-gotten gains were not spent on groceries, school uniforms or new shoes, but TikTok. Bizarrely the mother-of-two splashed £300k on 'TikTok coins' and gifted them to her favourite influencers. The remaining £140k was splurged on the likes of holidays, hotel stays, Amazon purchases and cosmetic treatments. TikTok coins are a virtual currency that can be purchased online and 'gifted' to content creators during 'live' sessions, with the influencers usually giving a 'shout out' to gifters. The mother, described as a 'TikTok addict' at trial, is said to have found 'amusement and entertainment' in gifting her favourite content creators. Images found on social media from during the time of her scam show Greenall dressed up and out partying, posing for pictures with friends and getting lip fillers. However, she claimed in court she had not been living a lavish lifestyle and only started stealing from her boss to fund household purchases. The mother was a 'trusted' and 'well liked' employee when her scheme was discovered at startup car firm She had been the first employee the firm, part of the New Reg Ltd business group, had hired and rose up the ranks from customer services manager to accounts manager. Her bosses told MailOnline she was 'absolutely key' to helping the firm grow from a '£0 to £24million business'. However, the company's finance chiefs started to notice shortfalls in their profits and called an urgent meeting in May 2024 to discuss the missing sums. Greenall and her colleagues were urged to look into the discrepancies as a matter or urgency. Her spending spree almost pushed New Reg Ltd, which had been operating since 1995, to financial ruin and put 30 of her colleagues at risk of redundancy. However, the job security of her work friends' was far from the mind of Greenall as she returned to her desk. Instead she made a final deposit of £20k to her own account and fled the office. In a final act of betrayal, she had callously told bosses she had a family emergency and would not be back. A week later, Greenall rang her office and admitted to the fraud. Over the course of 121 payments, she siphoned off £443,523.26 from the company, the Liverpool Echo reported. But despite the large sum, her fraud began on a small scale. She started by making deposits of around £200 at a time in 2023, and by the end of the year had made 53 unauthorised deposits totalling £57,036. She spent the small fortune on supermarket shops, restaurants and cafes, Amazon Prime and sports shops. She also splashed out on family holidays, hotel bookings and even hired a family lawyer. The mother-of-two then ramped up her spending the following year, making another four deposits to her account totalling £8,917 in January alone. In February she siphoned off a further ten payments amounting to £14,916. And the following month her illegal bank transfers had exploded and she took home a shocking £146,288 over the course of 20 payments. By April, Greenall's spending was completely out of control and in the course of just four weeks, transferred herself £196,364.26. And in a final payment on May 1, she deposited herself £20,000 in a single transaction before walking out. When interviewed by police, the young mother claimed she had 'not been living a lavish lifestyle' and had only £700 in her bank account. She explained how the deposits had started off as small and were only used to fund household purchases but quickly ballooned as she spent the cash on TikTok tokens. She confessed to becoming 'addicted' to the social media app and revealed sending the tokens made her feel better during a period where she felt very low. But to bosses at they reject this notion. They said a 'sympathetic portrait' of Katherine has been painted as a 'mum in tears' who had 'simply lost control', but that they hold a 'different account'. 'This wasn't impulsive. It was organised, sustained, and deeply manipulative,' says founder Steven Terence Jackson. 'This wasn't someone overwhelmed by technology. This was someone exploiting trust and abusing freedom, while looking her colleagues in the eye.' The firm said it was 'a deliberate and sustained deception' that unfolded over a long period of time, with more than £100,000 of the ill-gotten gains spent on luxury living 'well before any social media-linked spending emerged'. 'These actions didn't just harm our business; they impacted her family, betrayed her colleagues' trust, and disrespected a team that had supported her throughout.' Out of the enormous £443,523.26 of swindled funds, Greenhall spent £301,162.55 on TikTok tokens in the 21-month period. Chief executive William Fletcher MBE and chief operating officer Anthony Sharkey told of how the fraud had begun as low level transfers. They said: 'In 2023, it was very low level fraud. The way she hid it was to use genuine people and client names but then put in her personal bank details. 'It started with around £200 deposits at a time, which as you can imagine as a company turning over around half a million pounds a week, was hard to notice. 'And then it was in about March 2024 when it went ballistic. That's when she went crazy with it. 'It was unbelievable, that somebody who was in the inner circle, had helped build up the brand, could do this. And she was very well rewarded as well, she went from joining at minimum wage to having a pay package of more than £50k. 'If it hadn't been stopped and continued at the rate that the theft escalated in the final weeks, we would not have been able to continue trading. 'It was an incredible hit. We had to shift focus to protecting the jobs and livelihoods of staff here and I'm glad we were able to. 'We are devastated for her kids. For what purpose she did this we do not understand.' The pair also feel Barclays, who the company account and Greenall's personal account was registered with, had a lot to answer for. They said: 'We feel Barclays is liable for not checking these payments. They should have spotted it. 'They should have the most simple rule they put in place where if the payment name varies on so many instances, you investigate it. 'There's no way this would have happened 100 years ago. 'If we'd gone to the bank with a cheque with details that don't match up to deposit money, then went again the next day, and the next day, more than a hundred times, it wouldn't have happened. 'So why have we gone backwards? I don't understand why we're expected to accept this. 'We feel that if this was a big corporation or a personal account, there would have been more done. 'And why was it not flagged when such a lump sum went into her account?' The pair said they have only been able to retrieve around £2000 from the £440,000 stolen from them. They are hoping the case will alert other small business owner that similar could be happening to them, and have put up a page on their site to unite against the scams. Paul Becker, defending, told the court that Greenall, who had no previous convictions, 'may have been suffering from a form of addiction to TikTok', but stated that she had 'no formal diagnosis to such an addiction'. Mr Fletcher and Mr Sharkey also believe TikTok should have regulated the use of TikTok coins. They said: 'Katie claimed it was an addiction, in which case why is there no regulation over the amount spent on TikTok coins? 'If this was a gambling platform, there would be regulation over it and it wouldn't have gone on for this long. 'The platform also takes a significant commission for all gifts to content creators and we feel there has been a lack of accountability in returning this money.' Greenall admitted one count of fraud by abuse of position. Her two children, a six-year-old girl and an 11-year-old boy with severe ADHD, will be cared for by her sister, a nursery care worker while she is in prison. Sentencing, Judge Neil Flewitt KC said: 'You are 29 years of age and of previous good character. You are a good mum to two young children, one of whom has particular challenges. You were trusted and respected. 'Your employers were aware of the challenges that you faced at home and made allowed allowances. 'You repaid their trust in you by stealing from them on a massive scale. Over a period from January 2023 to the beginning of May 2024, you stole almost £450,000. 'You covered you what you were doing by manipulating documents that were used for accounting purposes by the company, and you put that money into your own bank account. He concluded by saying: 'It is a matter of regret that I have a public duty which I have to fulfil. It is a tragedy that those children are going to suffer as a result of your dishonesty. 'I have taken the view that there is simply no way to avoid what I am sure you have been advised is the inevitable sentence of imprisonment. This is simply too much money and too much damage caused here.' A Barclays spokesperson said: 'The protection of our customers' funds and data is our highest priority, and we take every precaution to ensure these are secure. We are sorry to hear about the fraud perpetrated and its impact on our customer. 'We have investigated this case thoroughly, finding no fault from the bank and as soon as we were alerted to this issue, we took every step to recover any remaining funds. 'New Reg Ltd. used a specialist business platform to handle payments, for which some of its employees were authorised users. We provided extensive guidance and tools to the business for this platform to prevent such fraud taking place, including various warnings and a recommendation to implement dual-authorisation, which requires two people to authorise every payment. We encourage them to continue pursuing this matter as a civil dispute.'
