Marny Baccam, ex-girlfriend of disgraced Bayside CFO Gary Goodman, appeals sentence

A romantic interest drove a former Thai restaurant owner to take a job on a Sydney council and defraud ratepayers out of hundreds of thousands of dollars, a court has heard. But that wasn’t her only motivation.

The bustling Thai restaurants in Sydney and the NSW south coast that Marny Baccam managed were a far cry from the former Botany Bay Council she found herself working at despite holding no relevant experience.

Downing Centre District Court heard the 64-year-old got the gig with the help of the council’s chief financial officer, Gary Goodman, who also happened to be her boyfriend.

Before long, Baccam was embroiled in a multimillion dollar fraud in which $195,000 was paid to her company, Ari Landscape Solutions, for work never done.

Now, Judge John North is considering whether to keep Baccam in jail for the crime, which she was sentenced to two years’ jail for in August.

And the appeal hearing has unearthed more details about how Baccam became involved in the fraud and where all the dirty money went.

Former Botany Bay Council CFO, Gary Goodman, has died since the ICAC investigation. Picture: John Appleyard

Baccam told the court she struggled with a crippling gambling addiction and was in an on-and-off relationship with Goodman from 2007 to 2013, when the crimes were committed.

The court heard Goodman helped Baccam set up a company called Ari Landscape Solutions and that she planned to tender for a $250,000 Centennial Park contract.

The tender never eventuated. But, nine days after the company was registered, Baccam started billing the council.

Crown Prosecutor, Mr Charleston, asked Baccam if she in fact set up the company for the “sole purpose” of receiving 57 payments for a total of $245,000 into the company bank account, which she would then withdraw.

She responded: “yes”.

“It had nothing to do with Centennial Park tenders, did it?” Mr Charleston asked, to which Baccam said: “Yes. It did at the beginning, but then not, and I have no documents to show that it did.”

An addiction to the pokies and a “complicated relationship” with her then-boyfriend, Goodman, drove her poor decision making, the court heard.

Botany Bay Council was defrauded for over $4.2m. Picture: John Appleyard

She said Goodman would take all the money from each withdrawal and give Baccam an allowance of about $1,000 per transaction.

“It was never enough money Gary gave me to save anything, I just gambled it all. I have nothing left,” Baccam said.

“I regret it every day of my life.”

The court heard Baccam poured her savings of $20,000 into a deposit for a house which she moved into with Goodman in 2007, which Goodman owned.

Baccam lived in the house until Goodman died in 2017.

Botany and Rockdale councils merged to become Bayside Council in 2016.

Following an ICAC investigation, Baccam pleaded guilty to three counts of dishonestly obtain financial advantage by deception and was sentenced in the Downing Centre District Court to two years prison with a non-parole period of 12 months.

She is appealing the severity of her sentence, which was handed down in August.

Her lawyer, John Peluso, said prison had been onerous for his client, who had been on suicide watch and was forced to leave her elderly and ill mother, whom she was caring for.

“The evidence indicates that she’s a person of otherwise good character and that this occurred in a time in her life when she was very vulnerable, emotionally and financially,” Mr Peluso said.

“Clearly, she was having very hard knocks by going directly into custody”.

Mr Peluso asked Judge North to consider replacing Baccam’s full-time custodial sentence with an intensive correction order involving home detention and community service.

Judge North adjourned the appeal hearing until 10am Friday to consider his decision.