Adeng Mathiang: Granville woman sentenced for dealing with property proceeds of a crime

When a woman had more than $100,000 land in her account without explanation – the proceeds of a scam on a Sydney business – she opted to go to the ATM and withdraw $2500.

Adeng Awudcok sentenced for deal with property proceeds of crime. Allegedly took $2500 although knew money was not hers, which somehow got into her bank account. Picture taken at Sutherland Local Court on May 30 2023. Picture: Ashleigh Tullis

A traffic controller withdrew $2500 money from her bank account, despite it not belonging to her, after more than $100,000 was deposited in her account during a scam attempt to defraud a Kirrawee technology company.

Adeng Awudcok Mathiang, 22, was sentenced in Sutherland Local Court on Tuesday after pleading guilty to dealing with property proceeds of a crime.

Agreed facts tendered to court state a Kirrawee company, Triple H Technologies, which specialises in electrical work in the building and construction industry, was the victim of scam and defrauding.

On October 16, 2021 the company’s accounts manager received an email from the general manager’s work email address authorising a payment for an invoice to a company called Dart Advisory Pty Ltd for professional service rendered to the organisation.

The accounts manager processed the payment of $69,702 into the nominated bank account.

Two days later the accounts manager received a similar email from the general manager and processed a payment of $109,702 for the same company but the bank details were different.

About an hour later, a member of ANZ’s fraud investigation team called the accounts manager and had flagged the payment.

She said the payment was legitimate, genuinely thinking her general manager had sent the emails, and the payment was processed.

A short time later, the general manager confirmed he had not sent any emails and believed the company’s email server had been hacked, the documents state.

Adeng Mathiang, who lives in Granville, was sentenced in Sutherland Local Court.

The fraud team was contacted and steps were taken to block the transaction however it was too late, and a couple of days later the transactions were reported to Sutherland police.

The bank was able to recover $64,000 of the first transaction, which was returned to the company.

Investigations revealed the second bank account belonged to Mathiang, which was created in 2015, and $109,702 had been deposited.

On November 18, Mathiang made two withdrawals from Commonwealth Bank at Granville, with a minute of each other, totalling $2500, and CCTV captured her putting the cash into her handbag.

The amount was frozen due to suspicious behaviour and returned to Triple H Technologies.

Police discovered the withdrawals were significantly higher than any other Mathiang had made, which suggests she knew the amount was derived from the proceeds of crime, the documents state.

Records showed she had never held a balance of that amount. About $171,365 was returned to Triple H Technologies, leaving them short $8038.

In court, Mathiang’s lawyer Jordan Gear said his client did not know how the money got into her account.

He said at the time his client was unemployed, on Centrelink benefits and took cannabis, depression medication and drank alcohol regularly.

Mr Gear said she had since started working as a traffic controller and had drastically limited her intake of alcohol and was no longer using cannabis, and planned to regularly see a psychologist.

He said she was remorseful and willing to repay the $2500.

Magistrate Philip Stewart noted Mathiang’s letter indicated she failed to understand the seriousness of her accounts and but took into account her limited record and that she was unlikely to reoffend.

Mathiang was placed on a two-year community correction order where she must complete 200 hours of community service, be abstinent from illegal drugs, attend counselling and repay the money.