Vienna Nguyen: Georges Hall woman fleeced Elizabeth Bay computer business $16,000

A former Commonwealth Bank employee fleeced a computer business of more than $16,000 through an elaborate scheme of refusing to return products after receiving a refund from her bank.

Vienna Nguyen appeared before Bankstown Local Court on Thursday. Picture: Robert Pozo.

A former Commonwealth Bank employee fleeced a computer business of more than $16,000 through an elaborate scheme of refusing to return products after receiving a refund from her bank.

Vienna Nguyen, 21, of Georges Hall, appeared before Bankstown Local Court on Thursday and pleaded guilty to dishonestly obtaining financial advantage by deception and dealing with property proceeds of crime in January last year after she called Commonwealth Bank and disputed transactions to pocket $16,351 from Lakes Customs Computers.

In February last year investigators from Lake Macquarie Police District launched an investigation in relation to a number of fraudulent transactions committed on Lakes Customs Computers based in Catherine Hill Bay.

Agreed facts state between January 4 and January 22 the business had 16 fraudulent transactions where products were purchased through its website.

In one instance, a purchase was made for a number of computer parts on January 8 valued at $4279 by Nguyen under a different name.

Vienna Nguyen appeared before Bankstown Local Court on Thursday.

Once the items were delivered to an address at Marrickville, Nguyen disputed the purchase to Commonwealth Bank, who refunded the money back to her.

She would later cease contact with Lakes Customs Computers and refused to return their products.

A search warrant granted in June 2022 to investigate the fraudulent transactions revealed the credit card used was an account with the Commonwealth Bank - who advised police Nguyen had two telephone numbers registered with the account.

Magistrate Glenn Walsh said Nguyen’s actions were calculated as the account was created in December 2021 through the Commonwealth Bank mobile application.

“This offender is well educated and knew precisely what she was doing,” he said.

The facts state Nguyen had access to four Commonwealth Banks accounts held in her name through the mobile application.

Vienna Nguyen appeared before Bankstown Local Court on Thursday. Picture: Robert Pozo

“Between 22 December 2021 and 11 January 2022, the account was used to make 18 purchases totalling $29,415.41,” the facts state.

The facts state Nguyen transferred money between the four accounts and on January 26 2022 the remaining $18,158.03 in the account was transferred to her brother and the account was closed.

Police met with Nguyen on October 27 where she agreed to attend Bankstown police station and made admissions to opening the account on behalf of a friend and provided them the bank card used to make the purchases.

“Nguyen said her friend conducted all the purchases and he would instruct her to call the Commonwealth Bank to dispute the transactions,” the facts state.

“Nguyen said she later used the funds that were deposited into her account for her personal use and was never instructed to return the funds to her friend.”

Magistrate Glenn Walsh said Nguyen acted out of “greed not need” and said her actions were “false, deceptive and criminal”.

“This was for nothing else but false enrichment … that can be a detrimental amount of money for a small business owner to lose,” he said.

Nguyen was convicted and was sentenced to a community corrections order for two years.

She was also ordered to pay $16351 back to Lakes Customs Computers.