ROCK MUSIC We have one of the highest rates of imprisonment in the Western world. 20,000 of our kids have a parent behind bars. What's it like when they're on the inside and you're on the outside? Tonight, accountant and father of seven Richard embezzled $5.5 million. At his trial, it is revealed he was stealing to fund a serious addiction. Over 10 years, he won and lost $50 million. At nearly 60 years of age, I've lost absolutely everything. I still lie in bed at night going, 'My dad is in prison. What the`?' After a mortgagee auction, the family now faces losing their home. And how will family-man Richard survive behind bars? SELINA: This man became a stranger. Secrets. You don't have secrets. Captions by Ashlee Scholefield. Edited by Anne Langford. www.able.co.nz Captions were made possible with funding from NZ On Air. Copyright Able 2017 Mother of seven and grandmother of 13, Selina discovered her husband's terrible secret one morning. Richard left for work early ` about 7 o'clock in the morning ` and it just went through my mind, 'That's strange, but, well, maybe he's got a meeting.' He gave me a kiss goodbye and went off to work. Richard was the general manager and head accountant for a large roofing and building insulation business. The family had close ties to the business. Wife Selina managed one of the company departments, and several of Richard and Selina's children were employed there also. The couple worked long hours but were on a combined salary of $500,000. At 9.58am, I receive an email from Richard, 'Can you come home? I need to talk to you.' So I replied, 'OK, what time?' He said 10.30. I came home. Richard was sitting at the dining-room table. He'd made me a cup of tea. I sat on the opposite side of the table, and he proceeded to tell me that he had been stealing money from his employer. In 2010, the owners of the business couldn't work out why they were doing badly. They began investigating. Richard's 10-year fraud was about to be uncovered. I looked to him and I noticed marks on his neck, and I said to him, 'What's that?' He had his shirt on; he said, 'It's a rash.' I said, 'Did you attempt to hang yourself?' And he said yes. And I said, 'What happened?' And he said, 'The rope broke.' So he said he then had to put plan two into place, and plan two was fighting his demons and telling what he'd done. Dong! He'd just ripped my guts out. Totally ripped my guts out. All of a sudden, I was married to someone I didn't know. Selina immediately got on the phone to Richard's boss and asked him to come to the house. Richard confessed all. As head accountant of the business, Richard had access to 26 separate company accounts and four family trust accounts. Inexplicably, after working as a trusted employee for 22 years, Richard started shuffling money from the company's accounts into his own. He did this via 150 transactions over the next 10 years. After revealing all, Richard contacted a lawyer, turned himself into the police and waited to be sentenced. TV: Richard Watson was a trusted and highly paid employee at a company which manufactures roof tiles. He'd worked there for 32 years. Watson frequently told his employer and shareholders there were financial pressures on the company which required them to inject funds. On one occasion, the company borrowed $2 million. And in many instances, they had to borrow money, using as security their own homes. When you're there as his wife, and he's standing in the dock, that was really really tough ` that all of a sudden, your husband, this strong man, he's a criminal. And he's on the other side of the fence. That was tough. Richard's face was all over the papers. The judge sentences him to six years in prison. One year on, wife Selina and the family are finding it hard to come to terms with why he did it and how they didn't know what he was doing. Selina and Richard's youngest son, Matt, lives a block away from the family home in South Auckland. He was obviously a businessman, and I just had this utter fear that a businessman wouldn't really cope in jail. So that was my main concern ` that he was gonna be OK whilst in a place where I'd never envisaged my father to be. First time I saw him in prison was very hard. I remember having to go up a whole bunch of metal staircases and then being in this` what seemed like a big hall, and then through a glass screen I could see Dad walking up wearing his orange overalls. And seeing Dad like that, you know, broke my heart. You know, see him come out with no shoes on, you know, bare feet. One of the hardest things for the family, especially mum Selina, is convincing people they didn't know Richard had been stealing. They would say, 'Well, how can you not know your husband's taking $5.5 million? 'I'm sure you'd notice that in your bank account.' But` It sounds naive, but Dad was a chief financial officer, he was a financial controller, so Mum really had no reason to ever go down that path and look at bank accounts and what their finances were like, cos Dad always had that covered. This morning it's an early start for 22-year-old Matt. He works in sales, but since his dad's arrest, it hasn't been easy. Essentially, it's quite hard. There was that initial stigma associated with my father's offending. But I had to realise that it was my father's offending, and the stigma associated with my father and not me. Matt is still working for the same company Richard stole millions of dollars from. To my face, I haven't been treated any differently to anyone else, I don't think. But whether or not any nasty remarks go on in the background, that's, obviously, for me to not know. Back at the family home, Selina is shocked by what she's finding in Richard's office. Where did I put it? It's been a year since he was sent to prison, and Selina is still piecing together how Richard kept what he was doing hidden. He'd come home from work; the door was always locked, so I didn't come into this room. He'd leave for work 8 o'clock in the morning, come home, have a cup of coffee, come down, work in the office, come up for tea, back down here, come up, watch the news, and then back down the office. But that was his whole working life that Richard did that. It was Richard's cave, and he was in here about 75% of the time that he was at home. Kids and myself went through all the receipts Richard kept through the years, and there's about $5.5 million ` just receipts sitting in this box. With all their money gambled away, Selina must make big decisions about her future. The family home has been sold in a mortgagee auction. Selina must pack everything up and decide where to move to in less than a month. Accountant Richard embezzled $5.5 million and was sent to prison. Wife Selina is selling possessions to survive, and with the house sold in a mortgagee auction, could be homeless in three weeks. While packing up the house and deciding where to go, Selina is trying to piece together how her husband of nearly 40 years kept such a dark secret. I was 19 when we met, and Richard was 18, and we worked in the same office. I turned around, and I said, 'Do you know any eligible bachelors that would like to go out tonight?' And he said, 'Do you mean me?' He said OK, so we went out from there. As Richard's career took off, he spent more time working and less time with the family and Selina. Selina believes Richard had become a workaholic. Sky City Casino opened in Auckland and became a distraction for Richard from work, and offered a chance for Selina to spend time with him. It was a break. It was a break from the house; it was a break from work. If we remained at home, Richard would continue to work, and there was no 'our time'. Absolutely no 'our time' at all. So I had the time driving into Auckland with Richard beside me, and we'd talk. If he ran out of money, he'd come and sit beside me, and we'd talk. So other than that, there was no 'our time'. As a teenager growing up, youngest of seven Matt knew where his parents were going. Over time, he saw their casino visits increasing. The couple started going regularly. They would probably go three or four nights a week, and they would be there for a considerable amount of time. Everybody had their own vices. Some people drank, some people smoked cigarettes and I just considered that to be their time alone, because they were so involved with work that Sky City, I thought, was the only place that was open long enough to accommodate them. Richard and Selina became VIP guests at the casino. Their routine over the next 10 years was the same ` a special routine Selina believes Richard used to hide just how much he was gambling. We would arrive at the casino car park. We'd get into the lift. I'd go up to level three, go on the smoking balcony, have a cigarette, while Richard was down at the bank. He'd change the money into tickets because you put a ticket into the machine. He'd give me $1000's worth ` two $500 tickets ` or $2000's worth, and then we'd play that off. If we won, Richard would go and bank it back down at the BNZ. Richard was on a salary of $300,000 per annum. I was on a salary of $150,000 per annum, so there was no reason to question where the money came from. If we couldn't afford to go, my feelings were we wouldn't have gone. And at no stage did I suspect that he was stealing to support that. During Richard's trial, he was declared bankrupt. It was estimated over 10 years he won and lost close to $50 million at Sky City Casino. Getting over the shock of what Richard did was one thing, but for Selina, there was worse to come. 17� years ago we got the section, then we designed the house, and had it built. It's neat because we put our heart and soul into it, so we built it with all the kids in mind. We'd live here forever. It's a dream. This was our dream. Tonight some of the kids are around for a final family dinner. The topic turns to Richard very quickly. Dad was always one for that, um, you know, people done something wrong, then they pay for it. But this is just, yeah. That was a real shock. We never expected that in a million years. It still doesn't sink in. I still lie in bed at night going, 'My dad is in prison. What the`?' Then another staff member, when we were reading the article in the paper, said, 'Oh, that's that scumbag that took all that money.' 'That's not a scumbag; that's my dad.' And his face just went bright red. And I said, 'Look, what you're reading in the paper is completely different to what's the truth. 'And if you wanna hear it from somebody in the family, I'll tell you straight. 'Ask me what you wanna know.' < It was me that had to tell you kids. And Richard sat down in his office and didn't come up till after I'd told you. Yeah, he was crying. That's the first time I'd ever seen Dad cry. 26 years. I went downstairs, and he was in tears. I think it'd be` Since it happened would be probably the most that we've heard Dad say that he loves us. BOTH: Mm. > Not all the kids are here tonight for the last dinner, including second-oldest Stephen. John's missing cos he's at work. Stephen's missing cos he's in prison. Dabbling in drugs already, Stephen's drug-taking increased after dad Richard's arrest. Months after Richard was arrested for the multimillion dollar fraud, second-oldest Stephen was charged with making methamphetamine. Father and son are now serving time in the same prison. PHONE RINGS Hello? Packing, packing, darling. What's different in my life? Stephen may be in the same prison as his dad, but they're in different units. All right, my sweetheart. Well, are you gonna ring later? You're gonna give a call later. Richard and Stephen see each other once a month, and Stephen finds that hard to cope with, that Richard's behind prison; he's still` you know, Richard's in prison. 'He's the man. Dad's the man.' He can't understand it. 'Mum, he doesn't belong here.' But, 'Sorry, Steve, Dad did wrong.' So it's been a horrible two years for me with Richard, Stephen. We'd always told Stephen, 'It's gonna catch up with you someday. You can't live like this forever. 'You're not invincible. Your health` The law's gonna catch up to you.' And, um, the law caught him first, which is kind of good cos it saved his health. It was gonna be one or the other. And it was how quick it happened, I think, is what shocked us all. We weren't really shocked, as such, that Stephen got caught. It was more how quick it all happened together. It was just the` the collapse of an empire, as such. It's two weeks before the new owners take possession of the family home. Selina's almost finished packing, and she's made a big decision to move away, out of the neighbourhood altogether. I'm not gonna hide away from what Richard did. He did it; I didn't. So I can't hide from it. But in some ways, moving away` I guess I'm running away from the stigma behind what he did. Meanwhile, Matt has big plans himself, all to be revealed at his mother's 60th birthday. I think it's quite funny, eh, what Mum's still gonna think. She's not very fond of tattoos. Selina's husband, Richard, embezzled nearly $5.5 million and was sent to prison. Months later, son Stephen was arrested on drug charges. Both are in the same prison. From a comfortable lifestyle and combined $500,000 salary, Selina is about to say goodbye to the family home and neighbourhood. The hardest part is gonna be moving away from the children. But I look at it as new beginnings ` moving out of this area, moving away from... The victims live locally as well, so moving away from them, um, where I'm going to feel at ease and at peace ` that the gossip won't follow me. Selina's made a big decision. She's shifting across the country to Turangi, the same town where husband Richard and son Stephen are behind bars. I'm moving 321 K's away. I won't have the expense of going to see Richard or Stephen, stay in a motel, and I'll feel closer to the two of them. Won't be with them, but I'll feel closer. It's really important to be closer to Richard. He did very very wrong, but it hasn't stopped me loving the man. I don't like what he did. I don't like what he's done to me. But I still love him. It's where she wants to be, and, you know, I can just see her being a lot happier down there. And I see` When Mum and Dad are reunited, I see them being quite happy down there. Matt started carving at the same time as older brother Stephen, who's learning to carve in prison. His love of tattooing began a lot earlier, and he's planning a special tattoo in time for his mother's birthday. My first tattoo was actually that writing up there. It basically just shows I'm proud of who I am, no matter what anyone in the family could've or had've done. Matt, as the youngest of seven children, feels especially close to dad Richard. I just thought it was amazing when I found out that, you know, Dad took me in as his own, when I'm sure any guy would have difficulty trying to do that. You know, taking in a baby that's not yours. Matt discovered Richard was not his birth father when he was 8. It didn't change anything between us. If not, it made me grow even fonder of him, just knowing that he did that extra thing for me when he didn't have to. 'He said he loved me no matter what. 'And he has taken Matthew on as his own child. 'Those two are so close. 'Very very close.' BOTH LAUGH When Richard told me what he did, I was hurt, I was shocked, um, very angry at him, but he forgave me for what I did, and I could forgive him for what he did. Hey, bro. him for what he did. Hey, bro. Oh! Determined his family will find their feet again, Matt has chosen his new tattoo carefully. But first, with girlfriend Brooke as support, he must go through the very painful process of getting it done. But first, with girlfriend Brooke as That's real cool. painful process of getting it done. But first, with girlfriend Brooke as That's real cool. TATTOO NEEDLE BUZZES He will be revealing all to mum Selina for her 60th birthday ` her first in the new town. I think it's quite funny, eh, what Mum's still gonna think. She's not very fond of tattoos. Typical, saying, 'Oh, you bloody idiot.' This and my surname will be actually my most sentimental tattoos. Two days later, and after a long drive down from Auckland, Matt and some of the children are arriving to celebrate Selina's 60th in the new town. They will also visit their dad and brother in prison, now only five minutes down the road. I think it's neat not having that nice long drive down, Matthew. You don't have that nice long drive. I think it's neat not having that nice long drive down, Matthew. You don't have that nice long drive. No, I know. It's hard for you guys now, but, hey, I did it for nearly a year. I know. You're crazy. It's commitment, all right. An hour later, and the visits are over. What'd you think of him? Oh, he's good. Looks like Santa Claus. What'd you think of him? Oh, he's good. Looks like Santa Claus. (CHUCKLES) He didn't mention anything about Mother's Day or my birthday. In fact, neither of them did. It was a bit stink, but, like I said, I'm sure they haven't forgotten. No, they wouldn't have forgotten, but it's still a bit tough. Only 60 once, dear. Maybe it's tough for them to bring it up cos they won't be there. 60 once, dear. Maybe it's tough for them to bring it up cos they won't be there. Probably is. Sorta like rubbing salt into the wound. Probably is. Sorta like rubbing salt into the wound. Little bit. Sorta like rubbing Mother. Little bit. Sorta like rubbing Mother. Aw. Oh, that's beautiful. We know it's not quite your birthday, and we know it's not quite Mother's Day yet either. I hope that, you know, Mum and Dad are gonna be reunited and be happy together. 'I hope that brother Steve's gonna be able to resist temptations. 'I see it as a struggle. They've gotta go through parole hearings, being released,' and trying to get themselves back into the job market or back into life, which is probably gonna be one of the harder things for other people to realise ` that they've done their time, paid their debt to society, they're out for a reason ` because they've changed their ways ` so they should be given a second chance. So I think that's probably gonna be their biggest hurdle is, you know, undergoing the judgement of society. Mum. their biggest hurdle is, you know, undergoing the judgement of society. Mum. What? undergoing the judgement of society. Mum. What? I got a new tattoo. Mum. You dumb-arse. I got a new tattoo. Mum. You dumb-arse. Wanna see it? Go on. Matt's tattoo is a phoenix ` a mythical bird and symbol of rebirth. I kind of had the viewpoint that, when Dad and Steve got locked away, that's when the phoenix disintegrated itself, but our family is very fiery. We're gonna fight fire with fire, and it's gonna reinvigorate itself as a beautiful phoenix, which I see our family turning into again, once Dad and Steve are back out in the big bad world. our family turning into again, once Dad and Steve are back out in the big bad world. Oh, that's beautiful. Captions by Ashlee Scholefield. Edited by Anne Langford. www.able.co.nz Captions were made possible with funding from NZ On Air. Copyright Able 2017