Fraudster Donna Zanin pleads guilty to rorting $500,000 from Schnitz
A former Schnitz Australia accountant on $130,000 a year stole half a million dollars before blowing it on travel, restaurants, booze and parties.
Inner South
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A jetsetting accountant rolled sandwich chain Schnitz for half a million then blew the cash on extravagant holidays, parties, booze and expensive restaurants, a court has heard.
Donna “Dona” Lee Zanin, 42, pleaded guilty in the County Court yesterday to six charges of theft.
Zanin rorted $551,000 via 57 bogus transactions while financial controller for Schnitz Australia between November 2014 and January 2019.
The fraudster’s racket involved funnelling Schnitz inter-company transfer cash directly into her Commonwealth bank account.
Zanin, who began working for Schnitz in 2009, knew her goose was cooked after the company restructured in 2018 and a second accountant was hired.
The bookkeeper – who was on $130,000 a year – handed herself into police in June 2019 after the company’s finance manager had “suspicions” someone was looting the take.
Zanin told police she had “been waiting to get caught” while burning the cash on a luxurious lifestyle.
“I’ve just been – spent mostly on holidays, like extravagant holidays and so because my intention was to get caught I spent all the money because I wasn’t trying to get away with it,” Zanin told police.
“I just blew it on anything I can spend money on, you know expensive restaurants and alcohol and parties and a lot of travel.
Immigration inquiries revealed Zanin boarded 34 international flights to exotic locations including the UAE, Singapore, New Zealand, Malaysia, Vietnam and the United States while she was thieving.
Zanin, who was based at the company’s South Yarra head office, claimed she plundered the dough because she wanted to “self-sabotage”.
“I wanted to lose everything and struggle and start again,” she said.
“I purposely made it an extreme amount … I was probably going to go to jail, like, I wanted to make sure that it was gunna be bad if that makes sense.”
Zanin, who has no priors, wasn’t charged until August 2019.
She sent an apology via text message to her old Schnitz boss for betraying his trust.
Zanin wrote in the message that what she did was “psychotic” and hideous”.
Zanin’s lawyer submitted his client’s offending wasn’t sophisticated nor was it motivated by greed.
“She was sustaining a lifestyle … how is that not greed,” Judge David Sexton said.
“A term of imprisonment is an inevitable outcome in this matter.”
Zanin, who hopes to repay what she stole, was remanded for sentencing on June 30.
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