Mandy Summers ordered to pay back almost $30,000 stolen from Audika

A former audiologist swindled her employer out of almost $30,000 to spend on her grandkids.

A former south coast audiologist swindled her employer out of almost $30,0000 by lodging false claims for work she didn’t do.

Mandy Diane Summers, 51, from Lochiel, broke down in tears as she was sentenced in Bega Local Court on March 24 after pleading guilty to dishonestly obtaining financial advantage by deception.

Magistrate Doug Dick told Summers her offence could have been dealt with by a higher court as he sentenced her to a 12-month intensive corrections order and ordered her to pay reparations of $29,465.50.

He described her behaviour as “silly”, adding she had been unable to resist the “temptation” to defraud her employer Audika, and her offending had become “a means to an ends”.

“It’s going to take you a long time to pay that (money) back,” Magistrate Dick told Summers.

“You’re looking at jail. There’s shame that comes with that.”

Magistrate Dick also ordered Summers complete 250 hours of community service.

Mandy Summers was fired from Audika's Merimbula office after admitting to the fraud through her lawyer. Picture: Facebook

Summers’s lawyer Ranald Riddell, acting on behalf of Sautelle White Lawyers, told the court his client cared for her grandchildren and had wanted to avoid a conviction.

Court documents reveal Summers had been employed as an audiologist and would conduct hearing tests for clients under the Australian Government’s hearing service program at hired venues across the south coast.

Summers would visit Bombala, Batehaven, Bermagui, Narooma, Bega and Moruya for consultations, paying the room rental fee herself before lodging expense claims with her employer for reimbursement, the documents reveal.

Bega Local Court Magistrate Doug Dick told the court Mandy Summers could not resist “temptation”. Picture: Google Maps

A company review in January found Summers had inflated rates for room rentals and submitted dozens of fraudulent invoices for consultations she was not doing between October and December 2019.

The investigation uncovered $37,039.50 worth of claims made by Summers, of which only $7574 were genuine.

Her employment at the company’s Merimbula office was suspended on March 20, after a letter from her lawyer admitted her guilt she was fired.

However, due to the “complexity and resources” needed to go through each of Summers’s claims Audika chose not to pursue a further investigation meaning the true scale of the potential fraud remains unknown.