Site manager’s $155k refund ploy to fuel gambling addiction

A Brisbane site manager-turned chef has been jailed after blowing over $155k worth of fraudulent refunds on his gambling addiction.

Lance Reuben Smith was sentenced at Brisbane District Court.

A Brisbane site manager-turned chef will spend the next 18 months in jail after blowing over $155k worth of fraudulent refunds on his gambling addiction.

Graceville chef Lance Reuben Smith, 47, faced Brisbane District Court on Tuesday for the sophisticated fraud.

The court heard Smith processed $155,569 worth of refunds to himself while working as a site manager for Discovery Parts Ltd at Lady Loretta mine in Gunpowder, Mount Isa.

Smith had transferred the funds to six different bank cards over 810 transactions between April 5, 2021, and February 22, 2023.

After the “significant breach of trust” was uncovered, Smith resigned from that role and started working as a chef back in Brisbane.

Defence barrister Christopher Duplock said his client didn’t have enough money or assets to repay the funds taken.

Smith had developed an addiction to gambling at age 19 and had since used it as a coping mechanism for his depression and stress, he said.

Judge Vicki Loury said there were many people in the community who suffered from mental health issues and didn’t resort to gambling.

“They don’t go and steal more than a hundred thousand dollars from their employer,” she said.

Mr Duplock said Smith understood he needed to address his gambling issues, and that being charged had been a “wake up call”.

The court heard Smith had struggled to come to terms with his homosexuality throughout his life, after growing up as the son of a Mormon preacher.

He had undertaken drug and gambling rehabilitation in his early 20s, and more recently sought out further gambling rehabilitation and obtained a mental healthcare plan.

Mr Duplock said Smith had a “fantastic work record”, the support of his siblings, and no criminal history.

Judge Loury said Smith’s gambling addiction explained his offending, but did not reduce his moral culpability.

“Your offending involved a significant breach of trust … It was perpetrated over a very significant period, nearly two years,” she said.

Smith pleaded guilty to one count of fraud by an employee of at least $100,000.

He was sentenced to four and a half years imprisonment, to be suspended for five years after he served 18 months in actual custody.