Shepherd Patricia Maree Tarhynee pleads guilty to fraud as an employee

A mother hatched a ‘sophisticated’ plan to hide the fact she cost her employer just over $18,000 in 66 tonne of fertiliser. Read how this all unfolded.

A mother will have a jail term hanging over her head for two years after she hatched a plan to hide the fact she cost her employer more than $18,000 over 66 tonnes of fertiliser.

Tarhynee Patricia Maree Shepherd had been working as a planning and dispatch co-ordinator with Slade Point agricultural business Incitec Pivot Fertilisers when she co-ordinated the sale for about $6000, when the set price was $490 per tonne.

Mackay Magistrates Court heard the 28 year old had believed the material was degraded and could be sold at a discount.

“You were wrong, it wasn’t degraded at all,” Magistrate Damien Dwyer said.

Tarhynee Patricia Maree Shepherd pleaded guilty to fraud as an employee over 66 tonnes of fertiliser. Photo: Jason O'Brien

“And you were told that, but you found yourself so deep into the contract with the buyer that you went ahead with it causing a detriment (totalling) $26,730.”

The court heard there were no purchase orders attached to the material and the sale dockets had been stashed in an archive box.

Prosecutor Harry Coburn said Shepherd had also altered an email to show the fertiliser price could be about $90 per tonne.

“(She) did not have the authority to set pricing in her position … nor was it in the scope of her role to … make contact with customers and to organise contracts,” Mr Coburn said.

Shepherd pleaded guilty to fraud as an employee in late 2020.

Incitec Pivot Fertilisers is on Spiller Ave at Mackay Harbour. Photo: Heidi Petith

Head company Incitec Pivot Limited is an ASX-listed international company making industrial chemicals, fertilisers and explosives, with its Mackay fertiliser distribution centre along Spiller Ave near the harbour.

Defence solicitor Robin Cathcart said her client was a single mother, who was now living and working in Cloncurry and well regarded in the community.

The court heard Shepherd, as a teen, was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins Lymphoma, which was successfully treated and she had been in remission for about seven years.

Ms Cathcart said her client had been confident the fertiliser was degraded.

Shepherd initially thought the fertiliser was degraded and could be sold at a discounted, but when she was informed it was not she still went through with the sale at the lower price.

“She got in too deep and couldn’t get out of it,” Ms Cathcart said.

But Mr Dwyer countered that Shepherd could have owned up to her bosses in the first place, although he accepted her initial view that the product was degraded was honest.

“You went ahead with that and in doing so you formed a sophisticated plan in which you doctored paperwork, hid docket books, did all you could … to ensure that you were not found out,” Mr Dwyer said to Shepherd.

“But you were.

“There was some sophistication in the planning that you adopted once you were told that no the material had not been degraded.”

She now has an 18-month jail term hanging over her head. Photo: Jason O'Brien

Mr Dwyer said there seemed to be a legitimate contract on the sale for $130 per tonne and as such the buyer still had to pay about $8000, leaving the detriment total at $18,150.

“There wasn’t any benefit to you,” Mr Dwyer said.

“It wasn’t done out of greed … it was only done out of panic.”

The court heard she could pay the money back at $500 per fortnight.

Mr Dwyer found jail was the only option and handed down 18 months imprisonment, wholly suspended for two years.

Shepherd was also ordered to pay $18,150 restitution within two years.