Alan John Woodfield pleads guilty to 19 fraud offences after using his clients bank details to pay off gambling, tax debts

A carer who used his client’s bank details 165 times to pay off gambling and tax debts told a court he decided to stop the fraud months before he got caught.

An aged care worker took advantage of one of his clients as he repeatedly he used the Maleny man’s bank details to pay about $26,000 worth of debt, a court has heard.

Alan John Woodfield, 57, had been caring for the Maleny man about three times a week for a year when he decided to used the victim’s bank details on 165 occasions between March 2018 and May 2020.

The Mapleton man pleaded guilty in Maroochydore Magistrates Court on Thursday, July 22, to 19 fraud offences.

Police prosecutor Stu Lydford said Woodfield had seen the man’s bank statements while in his Maleny home and taken note of his Visa card details.

Woodfield then used those details to make repayments to loans he’d taken out to cover gambling debts in the excess of $18,000 over the two year period.

The court heard Woodfield also used the man’s bank details to pay off his tax debt and mobile phone plans, spending about $8000 in total.

Woodfield’s defence solicitor, Lisa Taylor, said her client had become depressed due to stress of the job and had turned to gambling as a means of coping.

“He used the pokies as an escapism,” she said.

Ms Taylor said Woodfield had stopped using the bank details a few months before the crime was detected by the man and he had since provided a “letter of regret to the family”.

Magistrate Christopher Callaghan ordered the $26,000 be paid in restitution.

Woodfield was sentenced to two years in jail.

He will be eligible for parole in January.