Pagewood man Raphael George pleads guilty after fraudulently using The Salvation Army’s credit cards

A former employee of The Salvation Army racked up a huge debt on the charity’s credit cards by making an array of personal purchases, including food, fuel, clothes and trips on public transport.

A former employee of The Salvation Army has racked up almost $23,000 debt on the charity’s credit cards, which he used to fund an array of personal purchases, including food, fuel, clothes and trips on public transport.

Raphael George’s ruse went undetected for almost 18 months, but he eventually came unstuck when an investigation of his suspicious spending found many of the transactions had been made when he was not at work.

The 43-year-old Pagewood man admitted to the fraud in Waverley Local Court on Wednesday, when he pleaded guilty to dishonestly obtaining property by deception.

An agreed statement of facts shows that in July 2023, George’s former employer, the Salvos Stores, found suspicious transactions on a company credit card allocated to him.

George, who had been working there since December 2021, had access to the charity’s Commonwealth Bank credit cards as part of his employment.

Waverley Local Court, where Raphael George appeared on Wednesday.

Employees are required to log any of their expenditure using the cards, providing receipts and explanations in order for the charity to keep track of its financial expenses.

When the suspicious transactions were flagged in July, a review into George’s credit card use between February 2022 to July 2023 was conducted.

The review found a large volume of transactions were a mixture of items purchased online and from businesses around his local area.

These included purchases from clothing stores, electronic game stores, fuel, Opal card purchases, car and motorcycle accessories, food retailers and restaurants.

Opal card purchases were among the personal expenses Raphael George charged to the charity’s credit cards. Picture: NewsWire / Damian Shaw

The review also discovered a lot of the purchases were made without receipts and when George wasn’t working, “including while on annual leave, public holidays and weekends”.

A total of 591 transactions were found to be unauthorised and personal expenses, with George racking up a total amount of $22,293.35.

Court documents state when George was confronted by his former employer in August 2023, he admitted to “fraudulently using the company credit cards for personal purchases”.

He was immediately fired and the charity pursued the matter with police about five months later.

Police later spoke with George on the phone call this July, when he once again admitted to the allegation and said he would “accept the consequences for his actions”.

The Salvation Army is seeking that George pays back the entire amount defrauded.

George is due to be sentenced at a later date.