Thomas James Beere pleads guilty in Mackay court to $110k fraud

The first excuse a worker gave after he was busted embezzling $110,000 from his employer over three years was ‘he owed money to criminals who forced him to do it’. Read how it all unfolded.

The first excuse Thomas James Beere gave after he was busted embezzling $110,000 from his Mackay employer was “he owed money to criminals who forced him to do it”.

The second excuse centred around paying for daily expenses in the face of his partner’s cancer diagnosis.

Beere began working at Vanderfield Pty Ltd in December 2012 and he had barely been working for the Hamden business, now known as RDO Equipment, for a year and a half when he started stealing cash.

Crown prosecutor Lara Soldi said between April 2014 and March 2017, aged 27 to 30, he pilfered $110,432.55 over 160 transactions “which he was carrying out at least weekly”.

Beere began working at Vanderfield Pty Ltd in December 2012 and it was barely a year and a half later he began stealing money by generating false refunds from the commercial agriculture equipment company.

In his role with the commercial agricultural business, which included sales, customer service and processing refunds, Beere had access to the company’s merchant card which he used to identify what parts were in surplus before generating a false refund.

“The average value per transaction was almost $700,” Ms Soldi told Mackay District Court.

“He became more bold and brazen and greedy as it continued.

“His most profitable month was the final month … when he stole (more than $12,000) from Vanderfield.”

In the final 16 days, he stole $9000 “which is just astronomical”, Ms Soldi said.

Beere would refund the money onto his or his partner’s bank card and used old invoices to make the receipts look legitimate.

The court heard an eagle-eyed colleague spotted one of the fraud transactions triggering an investigation exposing the full gambit.

Beere stole $110k over 160 transactions committed over about three years.

First Beere said “he owed money to criminals who forced him to do it”, but when police arrested him years after the crime was reported he said he used the money after his partner was diagnosed with cancer.

The court heard his bank account revealed most of the money was withdrawn in cash.

None of the money has been paid back and Beere’s barrister Paul Rutledge, instructed by Barron and Allen Lawyers, said he was “simply not capable”.

Beere, now 35, pleaded guilty to fraud as an employee. The court heard he has already spent about five or six weeks in custody on remand.

Mr Rutledge said his client did not handle his money very well, especially after his partner was diagnosed with cancer.

“He just lost control of his finances,” Mr Rutledge said.

Mr Rutledge said there had been a significant delay between when the crime was reported to police and when his client had been arrested resulting in Beere being left in a state of uncertainty.

Judge Jennifer Rosengren said she accepted there had been no further offending in that time, but there was no evidence Beere had received any rehabilitation for his conduct.

Now 35, he has paid back none of the money and his barrister said he was not in a position to do so.

“There are concerning aspects to your dishonesty. It was brazen and protracted and escalated over time,” Judge Rosengren said.

“There was significant final detriment … to your employer and none of this has been repaid.

“It was a gross breach of trust and I accept (Ms Soldi’s) submission it was not terribly sophisticated but it was effective in not raising any alarm for a very considerable period of time.”

The court heard Beere landed new labouring jobs after he was fired for the fraud and did not disclose his offending to some of his employers.

He was jailed for four years to be suspended on April 9, 2023 after serving 14 months. The jail term will hang over his head for four years. Convictions were recorded.