‘Catch Me If You Can’ fraudster Veronica Hilda Theriault off with the pixies when she tricked Dept of Premier and Cabinet
An unqualified fraudster who lied her way into a job as the SA Government’s top IT executive has blamed mental illness — and incompetent bureaucrats who hired her without noticing her LinkedIn photo was supermodel Kate Upton.
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A woman who scammed her way into the SA Government’s top IT role says she is mentally ill and should have been caught sooner — because her LinkedIn photo was supermodel Kate Upton.
On Friday, Veronica Hilda Theriault told the District Court she was “off with the pixies” when she duped the Department of Premier and Cabinet into giving her control of its IT systems.
Prosecutors insisted she should be jailed, saying Theriault had woven a “calculated and elaborate web of deceit” to benefit herself and secure employment for her brother.
But defence barrister Stephen Apps said Theriault was affected by bipolar disorder “at all times” — and would have been immediately discovered by competent investigators.
“It was cute, but it should not have deceived anyone … blind Freddy could have found it out,” he said.
“She was off with the pixies … her LinkedIn photo was (celebrity) Kate Upton.
“The suggestion she was a female Machiavelli is absurd … this was a pathetic attempt at getting a job.”
Theriault, 44, of Claremont in WA, is the Department’s former chief information officer.
Between May 24, 2017, and June 23, 2017, she fraudulently portrayed herself as a “senior leadership official” by assuming false identities and writing herself references.
She also invented a totally fraudulent background, falsifying her purported “20 years of experience” and netting herself a $244,000-a-year position.
Theriault also employed her brother, Alan Hugh Melville Corkill on lucrative $1500-a-day contracts before her sacking, just seven weeks after she started in the role.
On Friday, prosecutor Sarah Attar said Theriault’s behaviour demonstrated “a considerable degree” of planning, including coaching Corkill by text to land his contracts.
She said Theriault had run similar scams on both IBM and PriceWaterhouse Coopers prior to seeking a job in SA.
“She wasn’t seeking a role as a checkout chick or at McDonald’s, this was a high-ranking position with access to sensitive and confidential information,” she said.
She said Theriault “came unstuck” after falsely claiming DCP had suffered “three concurrent cyber security incidents” and demanding emergency control of state systems.
It was at that time suspicions were raised and her deception was uncovered.
Ms Attar accepted Theriault was unwell, but urged the court to reject any attempt to link her health to her conduct.
She said that, upon discovery of her fraud, Theriault sought to blame a deteriorating mental state caused by “gross and graphic bullying” within the Department.
“This is indicative of someone who thought her mental condition might work to her advantage if she played her cards right,” she said.
“This offending was not a particularly manic episode of her bipolar disorder.”
Mr Apps, however, insisted Theriault’s claim was “no veneer” but a complete explanation for her criminality.
He said she was often grandiose, overconfident, believed she was invincible and had no fear of consequence.
Mr Apps said Theriault had been irrational, attempting to also “hold down” a New Zealand-based job requiring international travel while working at the DPC.
That, he said, was caused by first a change in her medication, and then her going off it completely.
He said some of the blame rested with DPC, which had sorted “66 candidates down to three” based “purely on CVs”, and only then “checked” references.
“When someone chose to check (her background) with the proper sources, (her scheme) was patent,” he said.
“It was as easy as that to find out.
“Is that sophisticated? Is that a clever scheme? True it is DPC was misled, but at no stage should have she succeeded.”
David Edwardson QC, for Corkill — who wept openly throughout the hearing — said his client was “riddled with guilt and embarrassment”.
“Rather naively, when he was first approached by his sister he did not think of the seriousness of the conduct in which he’d engage,” he said.
“It was the carrot he could not resist.”
He said Corkill was a father of two struggling to pay his family’s life expenses, and that jailing him would be “out of kilter” with his actions.
Judge Michael Boylan will sentence Corkill next week, and will hear further submissions about Theriault’s mental health in two weeks.
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