Fraudster Cindy Lee Kenny was OneSure insurance broker’s company director when she stole clients money

A Queensland bookkeeper fraudulently obtained almost $140,000 while working for an insurance company, taking payments from customers and putting them in her own bank account.

Cindy Lee Kenny, 51, pleaded guilty to one count of fraud and one of fraud over $100,00 in Brisbane District Court on August 31, and was sentenced in Rockhampton District Court on October 13. She had OneSure clients pay their insurance fees directly into her personal bank account and failed to pay the professional indemnity insurance, fraudulently obtaining almost $140,000 total.

A bookkeeper fraudulently obtained almost $140,000 while working for an insurance company, taking payments from customers and putting them in her own bank account, leaving the customers without any cover.

Cindy Lee Kenny, 51, pleaded guilty in Brisbane District Court on August 31 to one count of fraud and one of fraud over $100,000 and was sentenced in Rockhampton District Court on October 13.

Judge Jeff Clarke said Kenny failed to pay the professional indemnity insurance, instead placing the money in her personal bank account, while she was the company director and minor stakeholder of OneSure Insurance Services in Eight Mile Plains, Brisbane, between June 2016 and September 2017.

OneSure was part of a parent company, the Credit One group.

Judge Clarke said Kenny’s successor reviewed the company’s accounts and discovered the anomaly.

“The managing director of the parent company sought clarity of that issue via text message and indicated that there would be police investigation or involvement,” he said.

“You ignored him in the first place and attempted to obtain the funds back after making a false story and saying you would pay it back after securing a loan.”

Judge Clarke said the police investigation uncovered that throughout the time she worked at OneSure, Kenny made 55 deposits of OneSure client funds to her bank, and in the process, created false invoices with direct payment to her own account.

He said Kenny would then cancel the client’s policy and file a paper trail to cover her dishonesty.

“The clients paid to secure insurance coverage and they had no cover at all,” Judge Clarke said.

He said there had been no compensation paid to the clients at all.

The total amount of the 55 deposits was $113,271.99 and the total fraud amount was $139,253.98.

The court heard OneSure, which originally had 39 customers, managed to retain only 13 of those.

Judge Clarke said Kenny’s victims lost the ability to demonstrate to prospective insurers they had maintained coverage, losing their entitlement to reduced premium costs.

He said the court had heard of Kenny’s two failed relationships and her childhood, with her mother primarily raising her until she married Kenny’s stepfather who was in the air force, when Kenny was about 13, and the family then relocated frequently.

Judge Clarke said Kenny’s work history was mostly as an insurance broker.

He said the motivation for Kenny’s offending was her financial state.

“You apparently said that the business was losing money and you were financially assisting your mother and brother and that you gambled away the money that you stole on poker machines to try and obviously win it back,” Judge Clarke said.

He said evidence before him outlined Kenny’s problem “maintaining” her mood, which led to “excessive drinking and gambling”.

The court heard Kenny had a gambling addiction and she was experiencing a major depressive disorder at the time of offending, but was not currently diagnosed with any mental health issues, nor was she medicated.

Judge Clarke said he was informed Kenny had a bookkeeping job she could go to after her release from prison.

Kenny only had a fail to appear conviction on her criminal record.

Judge Clarke sentenced Kenny to 4.5 years prison and declared 43 days presentence custody, with the sentence to be suspended after she served 15 months in prison, with an operational period of five years.