Kanishka Chaudhari, 24, of North Sydney: Masters uni business student convicted over bottle shop refund scam

A woman studying for her Master’s degree in business and risk analysis at a Sydney uni, ripped off her bottle shop boss in a refund scam. See what the court decided.

Kanishka Chaudhari, 24, of North Sydney, outside Manly Local Court, where she was convicted of dishonestly obtain property by deception for taking money from her boss at Camperdown Cellars. Picture: Manly Daily

An overseas student, completing her Masters degree in business and risk analysis at a Sydney uni, ripped off her bottle shop boss in a dodgy refund scam.

Kanishka Chaudhari, 24, of North Sydney, paid herself a series of “refunds” to get hold of the money while working as a casual for Camperdown Cellars at Neutral Bay.

Chaudhari, who has been in Australia on a student visa since 2022 to study at the University of NSW, swiped a total of $1,158 over a period of seven months.

Manly Local Court was told on Thursday that Chaudhari, who worked two shifts a week at the bottle shop in Clark Rd, had been struggling to pay her rent and buy groceries.

Kanishka Chaudhari worked as a casual employee at the Camperdown Cellars bottle shop in Clark Rd, Neutral Bay. Picture: Camperdown Cellars

Chaudhari was originally charged with 14 counts of dishonestly obtain property by deception. On Thursday, three of those charges were withdrawn before she pleaded guilty to one principal charge. She was convicted of that charge.

The remaining 10 charges were dealt with under the Form 1 sentencing procedure, which allowed Magistrate Robyn Denes to take those charges she was not convicted on, into account when passing sentence.

According to a police facts sheet tendered to court, Chaudhari used a computer “at the point of sale” to process items and then authorise a refund.

She then initiated a refund on the EFTPOS machine before placing her mobile phone over that machine.

The court heard that the “refunds” would then end up in her bank account. Individual amounts ranged from as high as $329.74, down to $54.99.

Kanishka Chaudhari (front) has to pay back the $1,158 she dishonestly obtained from her bottle shop boss. Picture: Manly Daily

On November 29 last year, Chaudhari went through this procedure three times, but her actions were caught on CCTV, and she was sacked.

Her Legal Aid soliicitor said Chaudhari was “not an uneducated woman”, but had found herself into “financial difficulties”.

Magistrate Denes told her that this type of offending was no different to theft.

“You may as well have put your hand in the till and took the cash out,” she said.

“What we’re dealing with here is a breach of trust.

Ms Denes said, considering Chaudhari was a Masters degree business student, that “I don’t know how you thought you were going to get away with it.”

She handed Chaudhari a Community Correction Order to be of good behaviour for two years and ordered her to pay back the $1,158.03 to Camperdown Cellars.

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