NSW, Sydney employees caught stealing from work
From a casino card dealer to a high-flying Sydney socialite - these NSW thieves stole from their employers before being caught red handed.
Police & Courts
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From a casino card dealer to a young socialite, these employees swindled their employers out of cash before their deceit was unravelled.
According to the Australian Federal Police, theft from workplaces costs Australian business up to $1.5 billion each year, with thefts ranging from employees taking home anything from pens to millions of dollars.
A spokesman for Human resources company iHR Australia, said data from surveys showed as many as 80 per cent of employees had been involved in, or would consider, stealing from work.
Some of these employees who breached their employer’s trust were supporting an expensive cocaine habits, while others were struggling with a gambling addiction and lost their stolen cash on pokies.
These are the NSW employees who stole from their employees and why they did it.
BRADLEY MOON
A Goulburn bartender who stole thousands of dollars from his employer in Goulburn has been slammed for a breach of trust.
Bradley James David Moon, 25, pleaded guilty at Goulburn Local Court in April to stealing property as an employee. He admitted stealing $6000 from his former employer when he was trusted to handle cash during the pub’s closure.
Moon had been working for a hospitality company which runs Goulburn venues Astor Hotel and Tattersalls Hotel for four years when he decided to hand in his resignation on August 16 2020.
The hotel conducted a thorough audit of the finances on August 23 last year and found that $6000 had been nicked from the tills and cash machines. Moon admitted to stealing all of it from his employer and he was sacked. He was due to finish work in September due to his resignation, but the theft cut his time short.
The court heard he repaid more than $1200 in an agreement with the hotel in an attempt to avoid prosecution, rather than in a show of contrition.
Magistrate Geraldine Beattie sentenced him to 14 months imprisonment to be served by way of a community corrections order. She ordered him to serve community service and to repay the debt owing to the hotel, which totals nearly $5000.
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SHIVAM DHINGRA
This former Blacktown security guard stole 16 laptops from two leading law firms while working at a Sydney skyscraper.
Shivam Dhingra, 22, from Blacktown, used his position working as a security guard at the 67-storey MLC Centre in Sydney’s CBD to steal computers from McCabe Curwood Lawyers and Meridian Lawyers between 2018 and 2019.
The court heard he reprogrammed access cards to access the offices and steal the laptops trying to feed a cocaine, alcohol and cannabis addiction at the time of his offending.
Dhingra’s lawyer said his client had managed to locate three of the stolen laptops and had turned them into police, and he had also found work with his cousin’s solar energy business after losing his security officer licence.
His lawyer said he had two cheques worth $5000 each to give to the two law firms and he would repay $250 per week to cover the remaining compensation.
He was sentenced in September last year to a term of imprisonment of 30 months to be served by way of intensive correction in the community after a successful appeal.
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LOUISE LYEL
This former high-flying media relations whiz siphoned more than $10,000 from her boss, using the cash to splash out on a bizarre collection of things.
Louise Lyel, 55, was sentenced in Moss Vale Local Court in April for dishonestly gaining property by deception, dishonestly gaining financial advantage by deception, and larceny.
The Robertson resident had been working as a PR consultant for popular Berrima restaurant The Loch in 2019 when her employer noticed large unauthorised transactions on the company debit and credit cards.
Between late November 2019 and April 16, 2020, Lyel spent more than $8000 of her employer’s money on a random assortment of goods.
She splashed the cash on a Samsung phone, a laptop, a laptop bag and keyboard, LG vacuum cleaner, soda stream gas bottles, a treadmill, crockery, aprons, shower caps, an electric heater, a bird cage, toys, CDs, heated towel dryer, milk frother, coffee machine, and a night at the Sheraton in Sydney. She also spent hundreds on at least three items of bird art, according to court documents.
She was sentenced to 12 months imprisonment with a seven month non-parole period.
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AUGUSTINE NOSTI
This prestigious Sydney college financial manager felt like a “high roller” when he put most of the $7.4 million he stole from his employer through the pokies.
But Augustine ‘Gus’ Nosti’s gambling benders and lavish holidays over 14 years finally caught up with him in August this year, when he was sentenced by District Court Judge Karen Robinson to at least five and a half years in prison.
The 58-year-old will serve an aggregate term of nine years in prison, eligible to apply for parole on February 24, 2027, after pleading guilty to five offences of dishonestly obtaining a financial advantage by deception.
The court heard Nosti had no relevant experience when he was employed as Jewish Orthodox Moriah College’s financial controller in January, 2004.
Between August 2015 and his resignation in March 2019, he redirected 39 GST tax refunds — worth $3.9 million — away from the school of 1650 students to himself.
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SHANIA SCHWERIN
This Dubbo woman was spared jail despite ripping off her employer to the tune of $187,000 and declining to say what she blew the money on.
Shania Schwerin was employed as a bookkeeper at trucking parts business Neil’s Parts in Dubbo between June 2019 and March 2020, when she processed 108 fraudulent refunds, court documents state.
The 24-year-old brazenly used an eftpos machine to refund various amounts to her bank accounts and threw away the receipts afterwards. After swiping her various eftpos cards to claim the small fortune, Schwerin logged into the Neil’s Parts invoicing system and manually altered entries to make previously-issued legitimate customer invoices look like they were subject to refunds.
She was sacked in March 2020 and when police interviewed her in November 2020, Schwerin claimed she acted with other Neil’s Parts employees to commit the frauds.
Schwerin pleaded guilty to a dishonestly obtain financial advantage by deception charge when she was arraigned in the District Court at Dubbo in March this year.
She was convicted and sentenced to a two-year term of imprisonment to be served in the community in the form of an intensive corrections order.
She was also ordered to undertake 250 hours of community service work, continue to engage in counselling and pay $10,000 in compensation to Neil’s Parts.
The court heard the $10,000 was the excess amount the business paid when it lodged an insurance claim after Schwerin’s crimes came to light.
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QIAOZHI ‘GEORGE’ HUA
This casino dealer executed a $35,000 swindle on The Star Casino’s baccarat tables with the help of a friend.
However, Qiaozhi ‘George’ Hua, 27, eventually came unstuck and in April this year he pleaded guilty to his role in the cheating scam which was brainstormed on his commute to work with his criminal accomplice.
Court documents state how the baccarat croupier would peek at the first four cards to come out of the shoe (card dealing box), before revealing in Mandarin what they were going to be to his accomplice.
The accomplice, who was playing the card fame, would then lay down an opening $1000 bet each on the known result which ultimately netted a total profit of $25,150 across the 16 times the scam took place.
Hua and the patron would typically bet legally until the ‘shoe’ was empty, however on nine occasions the croupier paid out on losing hands. These actions put the casino a further $10,500 out of pocket.
The court heard the married man had lost the lion’s share of his illegal earn on pokie machines at a hotel.
Hua was convicted of corrupting the betting outcome of event and dishonestly obtain financial advantage by deception and sentenced to an 18-month community corrections order.
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ANNABEL WALKER
This young socialite stole tens of thousands of dollars from a string of unsuspecting victims before splashing out on swanky restaurants and luxury hotel stays.
Annabel Walker, 32, from Bowral, wept in court and said “I love you mum” as she was handcuffed by corrective services officers last year.
Walker pleaded guilty to a raft of charges including multiple counts of dishonestly obtaining financial advantage by deception relating to when she was an administrative assistant for Aust. Leisure Group.
While working at the company and living the high life in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, she swindled $17,198.62 between February and May 2019 using her boss Jason Hugh Clarke’s credit card.
She was sentenced in September last year to 18 months in jail with a 12-month non parole period.
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ANTHONY LEAO-SEVE
A salmon swindler who stole a total of 500kg of fish from a processing plant in Ingleburn assisted with police inquiries into the theft all while hiding his own involvement.
Minto man Anthony John Leao-seve, 32, was arrested last year, following extensive inquiries by Campbelltown Police after they were notified by the executive of the Huon Aquaculture plant in Ingleburn.
Court documents state senior management of Huon Aquaculture noticed the large deficits in profits missing from the factory late last year, sparking an internal investigation by the CEO.
Leao-seve was a full-time employee at the time, driving forklifts and loading trucks during his 6am-2pm shifts Monday to Friday, with an “extensive knowledge of the systems used by Huon to account for stock holdings”.
In total, Leao-Sve stole a total of 20 boxes of fish weighing 25kg with Huon Aquaculture pricing it at $11,850.
An internal audit showed the company was missing hundreds of tonnes of salmon with 600kg of product unaccounted for each day.
In February this year, Leao-Seve was sentenced to 15 months in prison to be served in the community by way of an intensive correction order after pleading guilty.
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