Carly Regan defrauded Waminda welfare group of $371K, sentenced in court
A magistrate has lashed out at a Central Coast woman who has been sentenced in court for defrauding nearly $372,000 from her former workplace, an Aboriginal women’s health organisation, to fund her gambling addiction.
Central Coast
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Carly Myranda Regan’s gambling problem might have been compulsive and out of control but her means to fund her addiction was “calculated and planned” to the point she even tried to continue defrauding an Aboriginal welfare organisation after she quit, a court has heard.
Supported by her new partner, the 30-year-old was sentenced in Gosford Local Court on Thursday after pleading guilty to one charge of obtaining financial advantage by deception.
An agreed set of police facts states Regan was working as an IT project officer at not-for-profit government welfare organisation, Waminda, at Nowra.
Between March and September 2018 Regan used her position to purchase 163 mobile phones, 158 of which were sent to her home address and the other five to a Travel Lodge in Sydney where she was staying for work training courses including one on “leadership”.
She then sold the phones through Facebook and various other online marketplaces.
The court heard she left Waminda after people started “asking hard questions” as to why the welfare organisation’s telecommunications bill was “rising exponentially”.
The total loss to Waminda was $371,798.97 of which Telstra “forgave” the organisation $93,400 and another $250,000 was recouped on insurance leaving the organisation about $27,000 in the red.
However, Magistrate Peter Barnett said “not one cent” of the money recouped came from Regan.
He said she even redirected her former Waminda email address to her private email address to continue purchasing phones after she quit.
The court heard she got another IT job with Central Coast Council but was fired and later charged with larceny and disposing of stolen property.
She was sentenced in February this year to intensive corrections orders (ICOs) for six months and given 80 hours of community service for those offences.
Her solicitor Mark O’Callaghan said she developed a gambling problem around the age of 25 and the court heard she was pumping up to $3000 a day into the pokies.
“She began this system of criminality to support her gambling habit,” he told the court.
“While she was doing it she hid it from everyone. When she was arrested she expressed some relief.”
He said she was getting counselling and had not gambled since her arrest.
Magistrate Barnett said she was an Aboriginal woman who defrauded an organisation who’s sole purpose was to help indigenous women.
He said it had a “detrimental effect” on her community and fuelled the “finger pointers” who say “there’s no point in giving them money, they just waste it”.
“This is a breach of trust by an employee of an indigenous organisation, which is no doubt (taxpayer) funded,” he said.
“She’s ripped $371K out of an organisation where she works, (which is) for the benefit of her community.”
Her solicitor conceded a jail sentence was the only appropriate option but sought she serve it in the community.
However Mr Barnett said while an ICO was the equivalent of a jail sentence it was not considered the same by the general public.
“I have to send a message to the whole community,” he said.
“If someone takes their employer for $371-grand and doesn’t go to prison, what message is that sending to the community?”
Mr Barnett said he would have given her a bigger sentence but the Local Court was limited to a maximum penalty of two years jail for a single offence.
He sentenced her to two years jail with a non-parole period of 15 months.