Tiffany Anne Bailey given a suspended jail sentence for stealing

A St George businessman was forced to install CCTV cameras in his house when large amounts of cash started disappearing from a locked safe he kept in a cupboard in his kitchen.

Tiffany Anne Bailey, 32, pleaded guilty to stealing when she faced Hervey Bay Magistrates Court on Thursday.

A pregnant woman who stole $5000 from her father’s safe was addicted to online gambling at the time, a court has heard.

Tiffany Anne Bailey, 32, pleaded guilty to stealing when she faced Hervey Bay Magistrates Court on Thursday, April 11.

On Monday, April 15, she was given a suspended jail sentence and ordered to pay $5000 restitution.

The court heard Bailey had been living at the home attached to her father’s tyre repair business in St George when the offending happened.

At times, Bailey’s father would take cash from the business to the home and place it in a locked safe in a cupboard in the kitchen.

Three people had the combination – the victim, his wife and Bailey, the court was told.

Tiffany Anne Bailey, 32, pleaded guilty to stealing when she faced Hervey Bay Magistrates Court on Thursday.

In June, 2023, the victim placed $27,000 in the safe, which was witnessed by other people.

He later removed various sums of money from the safe, leaving about $20,000 there.

In early August 2023, he discovered a large amount of cash was missing from the safe.

In order to establish who was taking the money, he installed internal CCTV cameras in his home, which later captured Bailey putting the combination into the safe door.

In October 2023, the victim’s son told him Bailey had admitted taking some of the money from the safe.

Hervey Bay court. Photo: Tracey Joynson

In a series of text messages to her father, Bailey said she was sorry she “had a gambling problem” and made admissions to taking $5000.

Bailey attended Hervey Bay Police Station in March, 2024, and voluntarily participated in an interview in which she said she had a gambling problem.

She said she had taken $5000, but “they all thought it was a lot more”.

Bailey told police she had played online pokies but now had a block on her phone for those sites.

She said her gambling had started in June or July when she spent her tax return on gambling and had taken roughly the same amount of money as her tax return from the safe.

The court heard Bailey, who had no criminal history, was a mother of four and was 21 weeks pregnant.

Her partner supported her in court.

Bailey had developed an addiction to online gaming after going through some family issues, the court was told.

Since then she had self-excluded from all gambling venues and online gambling, and had not gone back to it.

The addiction had taken her to “rock bottom”, as she had been left homeless, living in a tent with her children as a result of spending all the benefits she was receiving at that time.

Bailey had been cooperative and made admissions to police and had written a letter of apology to her father, from whom she was now estranged.

The court heard it wasn’t sophisticated offending and it was led by her addiction.

After an adjournment, on Monday Magistrate Trinity McGarvie ordered the restitution and sentenced Bailey to three months in prison, wholly suspended for four months.

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