Gambling addict mum stole $1.8m from major Qld car dealer

A Brisbane accountant who stole $1.8 million from one of Queensland’s biggest car dealers to feed her gambling addiction has been sentenced to eight years in prison.

A Brisbane mum who stole $1.8m from her employer - one of Queensland’s biggest car dealers - to feed her gambling addiction, has wiped tears from eyes as she was sentenced to eight years in prison.

Wakerley accountant Sandra Balfour, 67, was in the District Court in Brisbane this morning where she pleaded guilty to a single fraud charge before Judge Paul Smith.

Mrs Balfour admitted to siphoning off $1.8m from car dealership giant AP Eagers over seven-and-half-years from 2010, in a large number of transactions.

She used a colleague’s login on the accounting system to make the fake payment requests then approved the payments using her own login, the court heard.

Sandra Balfour arrives at Brisbane Supreme and Districts Courts. Picture: Tara Croser.

She was busted in January 2018 after a customer complained they had not received their insurance, and investigations showed the premium had been transferred to Mrs Balfour’s bank account.

AP Eagers launched an internal investigation and found she had been paying herself amounts from $100 to $10,000.

Mrs Balfour who had worked for AP Eagers from 1993 until she was made redundant in 2017, was arrested and charged on June 24, 2018 at the international airport while returning from a trip.

It was not her first fraud, as she was convicted of 12 counts of fraudulent and false accounting, taking $33,000 from her previous employer.

She was convicted of that offence in June 1993 and it related to her “overpaying herself” in 1991.

Yesterday she offered to pay $898,000 to the insurance company for AP Eagers, as part of a related civil claim, but it has not yet been accepted.

AP Eagers has recouped the stolen cash from its insurer.

Barrister Matthew Hynes, for Mrs Balfour, submitted that Mrs Balfour was a gambling addict and the stolen money had been fed straight into poker machines, and had not been spent on a lavish lifestyle.

Stewart and Sandra Balfour. Picture: Supplied

Mr Hynes submitted it was likely Mrs Balfour, a Scottish citizen who arrived in Australia in 1982, would be deported to her birth country after her sentence was served and she had given up gambling and had been going to Gamblers Anonymous.

Mr Hynes told the court Mrs Balfour became addicted to gambling when she used it as an “escape” from the strain of caring for her sick husband, who was unable to work due to blocked arteries in his neck.

Judge Smith sentenced her to eight years behind bars, with a parole eligibility of April 26, 2024 saying she had abused her employer’s trust in her.

Mrs Balfour’s husband Stewart Alexander Balfour, was also originally charged over the stolen cash but prosecutors later dropped the charges.

He died from cancer in October last year, the court heard.