The Loch, Simmer on the Bay: Louise Lyel admits to stealing over $10k

A former high-flying media relations whiz siphoned more than $10,000 from her boss, using the cash to splash out on a bizarre collection of things.

A woman has been sentenced to jail after stealing thousands of dollars from a local Southern Highlands business.

Louise Lyel, 55, faced Moss Vale Court on Tuesday where she was sentenced for dishonestly gaining property by deception, dishonestly gaining financial advantage by deception, and larceny. 

Louise Lyle stole more than $70,000.

The Robertson resident had been working as a PR consultant for popular Berrima restaurant The Loch in 2019 when her employer noticed large unauthorised transactions on the company debit and credit cards. 

Between late November 2019 and April 16 2020, Lyel spent more than $8000 of her employer’s money on a random assortment of goods.

She splashed the cash on a Samsung phone, a laptop, a laptop bag and keyboard, LG vacuum cleaner, soda stream gas bottles, a treadmill, crockery, aprons, shower caps, an electric heater, a bird cage, toys, CDs, heated towel dryer, milk frother, coffee machine, and a night at the Sheraton in Sydney. She also spent hundreds on at least three items of bird art, according to court documents.

Lyel, who also uses the surname Convy, admitted to using the cheque book of her employer’s other business Simmer on the Bay to siphon almost $4400 into her personal bank account on November 18 2020. She was caught on CCTV handling the cheque for the staggering sum. 

The fraudster also pleaded guilty to using the cheque book of her employer’s other business Simmer on the Bay to siphon thousands of dollars into her personal bank account over a number of months. She was caught on CCTV making many of the deposits to banks around the Southern Highlands.

The once successful media relations businesswoman, under her former surname Convy, formed a lobby group for start-up companies called Entrepreneurs Only in the early noughties, and has been a director of many of her own media or public relations companies.

Magistrate Mark Douglass said the fact she was committing some of these offences while she was facing Nowra Local Court on fraud charges showed that Ms Lyel was not cowed by the legal ramifications.

“She was already going through the court process for matters of dishonesty and continued to offend in quite a significant way,” he said.

However, Lyel’s lawyer argued her offending was due to the mental stress of her court cases in Nowra and the Supreme Court.

“She was having an acute mental health episode at the time,” she said.

Louise Lyel was found guilty in July of defrauding Centrelink, as well as not paying rent. Picture: Brett Faulkner

Documents tendered to the court reveal numerous treating physicians have suspected that Ms Lyel is suffering depression, anxiety, alcohol dependence, and suspected bipolar disorder.

The court heard despite her traumatic childhood of neglect and abuse, Ms Lyel had been a stand-up citizen until an abusive relationship triggered a snowballing effect of bad choices.

Magistrate Douglass argued she was not so unwell that she couldn’t work and commit the offences with which she’s been charged, but conceded that her mental illness would impact his decision.

“There’s no legal argument that there shouldn’t be some sort of special circumstances in this matter,” he said.

Magistrate Douglass sentenced Lyel to 12 months imprisonment with a seven month non-parole period.

Ms Lyel is currently in jail for contempt of the Supreme Court, where she presented falsified records to the court and violated her community corrections order.

The sentence handed down on Tuesday will be backdated so she will be eligible for parole on April 2, 2021. 

Her sentence will be completed on September 2, 2021.

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