Glenda Ivy Burgess continues to deny multimillion-dollar fraud of Adelaide Brighton Cement, court told

A woman found guilty of defrauding a prominent Adelaide company of millions still says she’s innocent, a court has heard.

An accounts manager at one of Adelaide’s biggest companies still denies defrauding her employer out of millions of dollars, despite being found guilty of the “protracted, complex deception”, a court has heard.

Glenda Ivy Burgess, 63, of Hillbank, had her bail revoked in the District Court on Thursday after failing to offer an explanation for the fraud, which occurred between August 2009 and September 2017 while she was an account manager at Adelaide Brighton Cement.

During the trial, the court heard one of the company’s customers, Concrete Supply, paid only about $20m for $32m worth of cement.

Burgess was found guilty, by majority verdict, of nine counts of aggravated deception and nine aggravated counts of dishonest dealing with documents.

During a pre-sentence hearing on Thursday, Peter Longson, prosecuting, said there was no evidence Burgess had gained a benefit from the offending, which she continued to deny.

“This is (a) protracted, complex deception, which would have kept going had it not been detected,” he said.

Glenda Burgess arrives at District Court with husband on Thursday. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dean Martin

He said the offending was “always going to be found out” and that Burgess had “every opportunity to stop it” before she was caught.

Mr Longson said Burgess had not provided any motive for the offending, but proceedings in a separate court had heard it was a “possibility” it began as a “mistake”.

“We don’t know whether that’s the case because she maintains her (innocence),” he said.

The court heard there was no link found between Burgess and Concrete Supply, who derived a “considerable financial benefit” from her offending.

Mr Longson said Ms Burgess had a prior offence, dating back to 1985, where she had stolen money from a bank where she worked.

Stephen Apps, for Burgess, said her instructions were that “she didn’t commit the offence”.

“As to motive, there is no evidence that she sought to advantage or benefit herself from the commission of the offences,” he said. “There can be no suggestion of greed or avarice or anything like that. It can’t be said that she squirrelled money away.”

He said her earlier offending occurred while she worked for a bank when “interests rates were very high and she was trying to make ends meet”.

Mr Apps asked the court to be “as lenient as you can” when sentencing Burgess later this month.

Judge Adam Kimber revoked her bail. As she was led away, she passed some rings to her husband, at whom she had been tearfully glancing throughout the hearing.