Candice Jane Dean steals from employer, Sale car dealership, to get in good books with step kids

A Sale woman stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from her employer to get in good with the step kids, who “weren’t the fondest of her”.

Dean fleeced a total of $216,327.80 from the Mazda and Mitsubishi dealership in Sale where she was working as an administrations manager between 16 April 2019 and 28 September 2021. Â

A woman says she stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from her job at a car dealership to pay off her own car and get in the good books with her step children, a court has heard.

Candice Jane Dean, 33, appeared in the County Court sitting in the Latrobe Valley on Thursday where she pleaded guilty to one charge of obtaining financial advantage by deception and one charge of using a false document.

Dean fleeced a total of $216,327.80 from the Mazda and Mitsubishi dealerships in Sale where she was working as an administrations manager between April 16, 2019 and September 28, 2021.

On 207 occasions Dean transferred money via electronic payments from the businesses’ Westpac bank account into her own personal ANZ account.

Dean created false invoices using legitimate business payee details, but diverted payment to her own bank account.

Dean further disguised the invoices by altering the invoice date so it would appear in a previous financial year.

The court heard while it wasn’t highly sophisticated there were attempts by Dean to cover her tracks.

The manager of the dealership told the court through a statement he had tried to employ two assistants to help Dean with her workload but had to let them go after Dean said she was unhappy with their work.

He said he believed the workers were “capable” but were made to feel otherwise because Dean didn’t want them to uncover her offending.

“She has no care for anyone but herself,” he said.

In October 2021, Dean continued taking advantage of her workplace and drafted an email to Liberty Finance, purporting it to be from her boss.

The email contained false and inflated details of her income to support an application for a loan.

Dean’s mother Michelle Robinson took the stand in court to testify her daughter was had been “honest and trustworthy” her “whole life”.

She also said her daughter had suffered extreme hardship being a witness to domestic violence growing up before entering an abusive relationship in her first marriage.

Ms Robinson told the court she had helped get Dean a new job working as a receptionist in the vets office where she also worked but said they didn’t know about her legal woes.

Dean’s defence said some of the money had been used for medical treatment after she was diagnosed with endometriosis and had a fallopian tube removed.

They continued and said Dean had taken the money to “pay off debts” before revealing this was for car payments, however they were unable to provide any evidence this was the case.

The court heard Dean also claimed the money was used to support her second husband and his children who, according to her, “weren’t the fondest of (her)”.

Dean said in a statement she was “ashamed” of her actions.

“I’m sorry. I’m ashamed of myself and my actions. I wish I could wind back the clock and make better choices and decisions. I know what I’m going through and feeling isn’t nice, but it’s my own fault … they should never have been put in that position.”

However, Judge Syme said she was concerned about some discrepancies in the evidence provided by Ms Robinson compared to the report by a psychologist who assessed Dean.

She said it made it hard to assess Dean’s “level of honesty”.

She stood the matter down to provide the defence time to gain more evidence.