Sue Ma: office manager jailed after swindling more than $418,000 from employer
Sue Ma has been handed a full-time prison sentence after she was found to have swindled hundreds of thousands of dollars from her employer to fund gambling sessions at The Star and her local RSL. But she has walked free from court after lodging an immediate appeal.
Inner West
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An office manager who swindled almost half a million dollars from her employer before hitting up The Star and her local RSL has been granted bail just moments after she was sentenced to jail and ordered to pay $100,000.
Sue Ma, 49, wept as she was handed down her sentence at Downing Centre Local Court on Friday after stealing $418,740.99 from her previous employer WMA Water from April 2017 to March last year.
Ma who has pleaded guilty to one count of obtaining financial advantage by deception was the office manager at WMA Water having access to the company’s internet banking system and was in charge of inputting payment details of suppliers into the system for payment.
On 39 occasions Ma had entered her own personal bank account details as those of the company’s suppliers before withdrawing the funds from The Star casino and Petersham RSL.
In court, police prosecutor Shieh said “a custodial sentence would be the only penalty” and requested $100,000 in restitution.
Yet Ma’s lawyer Ms Pietrini attempted to get her sentence mitigated after claiming Ma had a gambling addiction during the time of the offences.
She told the court Ma has since sought treatment from a gambling counsellor, who supported her in court, and has had self-exclusions taken out at certain gambling venues.
“I’m not sure why I’d accept that is a mitigated factor,” Magistrate Clare Farnan said.
The court heard the mother-of-two had been earning about $115,000 as an employee at the company and has since entered into bankruptcy with $56,000 in debt to the banks.
Ms Pietrini told the court the debt was not “irretrievable” if Ma was able to serve an intensive corrections order (ICO) instead of jail time saying she’d be able to work at her niece’s café and repay $500 a fortnight.
“If she was incarcerated she would not be able to work and take up her debt,” she told the court.
According to court documents, Ma prolonged the fraud without getting caught by setting direct debits with certain creditors that were paid from non-company credit cards and her own NAB account through online bank transfers.
“These payments were set up to ‘pay off’ the invoice unbeknownst to the directors,” according to police facts.
In total, Ma diverted $418,740.99 into her own personal bank account from WMA water. While she paid back suppliers $180,130.26 from her own account, she fraudulently obtained $238,610.73 in funds.
During sentencing, the magistrate said the offences had gone on for a “significant length of time” and noted Ma suffered from a gambling addiction but did not accept that it was as a motive for the crime.
The court heard she was married with two children and had no criminal record.
“While the motive was to use the funds for gambling, part was to provide for the family which in my view is not something to reduce objective seriousness,” magistrate Farnan told the court.
She told the court the offending was a clear “breach of trust” which she took into account as an aggravating factor.
The magistrate said the maximum limit was 10 years imprisonment for her crime yet there was a cap at two years in this jurisdiction.
She also said the jurisdictional limit for compensation was $100,000 which was “significantly less” than the amount she owed to the victim.
Ma dropped her head and quietly wept as she was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment with a nine-month non parole period making her eligible for parole from 11 March 2021. She was also ordered to pay $100,000 to WMA Water.
Her young son gave her a final embrace as she was handcuffed and taken outside by Corrective Services officers.
Outside court victim, WMA Water’s managing director Mark Babister said he was “happy” with the result.
“We’d like our money back and probably never see any of it but it's a pretty reasonable and a just result,” he told media outside court.
“I hope she learns from this exercise and doesn’t do it again.”
At the eleventh hour, her lawyer lodged an appeal and her bail was granted.
She is to report to Marrickville Police Station every Monday and surrender her passport.
Ma will return to Downing Centre District Court on July 29.