Real estate worker defrauded employer of $27,000
A grandmother of seven was walked into custody today after pleading guilty to 216 dishonesty offences.
Moreton
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A Hendra grandmother has been jailed today for defrauding $27,000 from her employer.
Christine Lynette Meiers, 62, faced Caboolture Magistrates Court today, charged with 216 dishonesty offences including stealing by clerks or servants and false entry in records.
The woman — who had no criminal history to speak of — was today sent to jail for two months after it was discovered she had been taking money from LJ Hooker in Caboolture South.
The court heard Meiers, a previous employee of the National Australia Bank and grandmother of seven, had knowingly falsified records in order to defraud her employer of the money.
Prosecutor Sergeant Peter Mitchellson said she had “painted herself into a very, very precarious situation.”
The court was told the misplaced money initially started with no dishonesty involved when she had trouble understanding the business’ accounting system but she then continued with the knowingly fraudulent transactions.
The court heard Meiers, whose husband Greg Meiers also worked at LJ Hooker, had been repaying the money but the repayments dried up when both of them lost their jobs last year.
The court heard that of the $27,000 defrauded, $10,000 remained outstanding.
Magistrate Hasted said while her lack of criminal history, substantial repayments to the victim, timely plea and cooperation with police were taken into account, a period of actual time in custody was warranted.
“This fraud has occurred over an extended period of time,” he said, saying the offending happened from April 2017 to September 2019.
Meiers was sentenced on one count of stealing to two years’ jail suspended after having served two months.
She will be released on March 23, 2021.
For the remaining 215 charges, she was convicted and not further punished.
She was also ordered to repay the remaining $10,000 of defrauded cash and more than $2000 compensation.
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