Lake Haven: Rebecca Nicole Everingham pleads guilty to stealing from Prouds jewellery store

A store manager blamed a “lapse of judgment” when she used her insider knowledge to create false refunds to skim the accounts of Prouds The Jewellers at Lake Haven.

A magistrate has admonished a 40-year-old woman as “disappointing” after she used her insider knowledge of the jewellery store she managed to skim more than $3000 from the accounts in fake refunds.

Rebecca Nicole Everingham, of East Gosford, faced Wyong Local Court on Wednesday where she pleaded guilty to seven counts of stealing from her employer.

The court heard she skimmed a total of $3185.95 from Prouds The Jewellers’ Lake Haven store between December 15 and February 2.

Her solicitor said Everingham was “under quite a lot of pressure” at the time, caring for her mother who had cancer and having to work longer hours than she was getting paid for.

Everingham was sentenced in Wyong Local Court.

Her solicitor said it was a “lapse in judgment” and that Everingham admitted the offending with plans to pay the store back the full amount.

However Magistrate Kirralee Perry said “I find it difficult to accept it was a lapse of judgment” given there was a degree of planning involved.

The magistrate said Everingham used her intimate knowledge of the store’s processes and her position as manager to “hide” the unauthorised transactions.

“It’s disappointing,” Magistrate Perry said.

“To be before the court at your age.”

She said an aggravating feature of the offending was Everingham’s “position of trust” as a manager.

Everingham was the manager of Prouds The Jewellers at Lake Haven Shopping Centre. Picture: Google

An agreed set of facts states Everingham would create a fake cash refund for a jewellery repair, which had already been paid for by a real customer, and pocket the proceeds.

She did this on seven occasions taking money in amounts ranging from $100 to $699 and signed the receipts as both the customer and as herself as manager.

On February 15, 2022, a loss prevention officer was conducting an audit of the Lake Haven store when she noticed some irregularities, the facts state.

The loss officer went back and reviewed the store’s CCTV and discovered there were no customers at the point-of-sale at the time Everingham was generating the refunds and observed her physically take the money out of the till.

She confronted Everingham the following day who admitted to the thefts.

Everingham attended Wyong Police Station on August 26 and was charged with the offences.

Magistrate Perry said Everingham was “unlikely to reoffend” and accepted it was out of character for her.

However Magistrate Perry said it was a “substantial amount” and she had to send a message of “general deterrence” to the community that people could not steal from their employers and expect to get away with it.

Everingham was convicted, ordered to pay back the full amount and put on a community corrections order for 12 months.