John Riley: Freedom Furniture salesman defrauded company to fund gambling
A regular at Star City Casino managed to scam more than $20,000 from a popular furniture store over three months to fund his gambing habit. FIND OUT HOW HE DID IT.
Illawarra Star
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An Illawarra furniture salesman who defrauded his employer of over $20,000 to fund a chronic gambling habit has escaped jail time.
Lake Heights man John Riley faced Wollongong Local Court on Tuesday, where he confessed to running a returns scam while employed at Freedom Furniture, pleading guilty to two counts of steal property as clerk/ servant.
On Tuesday, the court heard Riley hatched the plan to fund his gambling habits, which peaked when he owned two road maintenance businesses in the past.
“He attended Star City Casino and spent a large amount of money there on the roulette tables,” Riley’s defence lawyer Jonathon Kearney told the court.
He said Riley’s gambling habits had granted him “special privileges” at the popular casino.
Documents tendered to the court said Riley started working at Freedom in Caringbah in December 2018 before moving to a new role at the Moore Park showroom in 2019.
Between October and December 2019, the court heard Riley made 48 false refunds totalling $23,568 for products including rugs, mirrors and artwork.
According to the documents he used the store’s EFTPOS machine to refund the money into his own bank account, then created a corresponding entry in the Freedom database.
‘The refunds were not legitimate and the customer referenced in the transactions had not requested the refund, nor returned the product as stated,” court documents read.
Riley was arrested following the scam in May and was subsequently charged.
In court, Mr Kearney said that his client had taken steps to address his gambling issues and was “first to acknowledge” he has a problem.
“For the first time in his life, he has woken up to (the) problem,” he said.
In handing down her sentence, Magistrate Claire Girotto noted that while Riley’s offending was “planned” he had taken strong steps to rehabilitate himself.
She sentenced Riley to 12-months jail, however agreed to allow him to serve it in the community by way of intensive corrections order.
As part of his sentence, Riley was also ordered to repay the funds he stole to Freedom and continue with treatment for his gambling issues.