Simone Hayes in court after fleecing $166k off employer SLR Plumbing Solutions

A swindling bookkeeper’s fraudulent conduct of nearly two years came to a crushing end after her boss noticed money missing and called in the accountants.

Simone Hayes has escaped jail for fleecing her employer, SLR Plumbing Solutions in Cheltenham, of nearly $166,000.

A trusted bookkeeper at a Cheltenham plumbing company was busted siphoning nearly $166,000 after the owner called in accountants for an audit.

Within hours, the accountants discovered Simone Hayes had fraudulently transferred at least $130,000 into her account while being employed by SLR Plumbing Solutions between February 2020 and October 2021.

Court documents stated Hayes, 50, was employed as a bookkeeper and executive assistant and had access to electronic transfer of funds from the company accounts.

On October 12, 2021, company owner Samuel Rowlands noticed funds in his business account

had been transferred into Hayes personal bank account and contacted her.

Hayes said it must have been a mistake and she would pay back the funds later that afternoon but made a partial transfer only.

Mr Rowlands contacted Blue Rock Accounting to organise an audit of the business account from the start of Hayes employment in 2019.

They discovered at least $130,000 had been fraudulently transferred and Hayes was hauled in for a meeting where she was served with a letter of demand and was given seven days to repay the misappropriated funds.

She repaid just $11,279.

It was later discovered Hayes had nicked $165,934 by overpaying her own wages 10 times and transferring money into her own account 57 times.

Hayes pleaded guilty in the County Court to a charge of obtaining a financial advantage by deception and was sentenced to a three-year community corrections order.