Former childcare director jailed for four months for $34,582 business fraud

A former Brisbane childcare centre director and mother-of-nine will spend four months in prison, after pleading guilty to defrauding $34,582 to pay private school fees.

A former Brisbane childcare centre director and mother-of-nine, who defrauded the business of $34,582, will spend four months in prison.

Jody Kimara Wright, 46, was bankrupt when she stole the money from Nido Early School at Woolloongabba in 2020, using it to pay for her youngest son’s private school fees.

Wright pleaded guilty in Brisbane District Court on Wednesday to defrauding the childcare centre of more than $30,000.

Judge Vicki Loury said Wright, who was director of the childcare centre, was responsible for submitting staff pay claims for wages.

Judge Loury said Wright, who occasionally employed a daughter as a casual staff member, made it look, at times, like wages were being paid to the daughter.

However the daughter was not employed in the position for which the wages were paid and over eight months, in 18 transactions, the money was paid into an account Wright accessed.

The daughter was not aware of the fraud and is not accused of any wrongdoing.

Judge Loury said there was some sophistication involved in the fraud as Wright had to create a biometric account for the daughter, use a biometric reader and sign in for her.

The fraud was discovered when Wright resigned from the position.

The court heard Wright had an impressive work history from many years working in childcare centres.

She received a Woman of the Year award for services to education and the community in NSW in 2011.

Wright has nine children, including four aged from seven to 17 who have been still living with her.

The court heard in 2020 Wright had a number of stresses in life, including an attempted suicide by a child, 17, an adult son in prison and her youngest son experiencing high anxiety and behavioural problems.

Wright found she could not pay for the youngest son’s private school fees and in March that year she became bankrupt.

Judge Loury said all the money Wright stole from her employer was transferred to the private school to pay for her son’s education.

The judge said Wright was motivated by financial stress and not greed.

The court heard Wright had arranged for her youngest children to live with her mother, while she was in jail, but the mother’s house was lost in recent northern NSW floods.

Wright was employed in after school hours care after she was charged, but lost the job after a few months after she disclosed the charge.

Judge Loury said Wright offered to pay compensation when the fraud was uncovered, but the employer rejected that offer then and since then nothing had been repaid.

Judge Loury sentenced Wright to two years’ jail, suspended after four months, operational for four years.