Rasela Afuie fronts court over $1.1m theft from employer

A Melbourne businesswoman on a work trip overseas thought she was having a heart attack after being told a trusted employee had stolen $1.1m from the company to fund her gambling addiction.

A Melbourne mother-of-four has been sent to jail for stealing $1.1m from her employer to fund her gambling addiction.

A Melbourne businesswoman broke down and cried in her son’s arms after being told that a trusted employee had stolen $1.1m and spent most of it on gambling.

Director of Diamond Freight in Tullamarine, Concetta Colangeli, said in her victim impact statement to the County Court that she felt like she was having a heart attack and could not breathe after being told of the fraud while on an overseas work trip.

Her employee of seven years Rasela Afuie– described by Judge Martine Marich as a “pathological gambler”– was sentenced on Monday to at least two years’ and three months’ imprisonment for the deception that occurred over 16 months, starting in February 2022.

She has repaid just $132,520 of the stolen money.

Afuie, 49, of Craigieburn, was the only Melbourne-based employee and her theft was discovered around mid June 2023 when she was on holiday in New Zealand.

Diamond Freight based at Tullamarine was fleeced of $1.1m by its employee and pathological gambler Rasela Afuie who has gone to jail for her crimes.

Ms Colangeli discovered that Afuie, a mother-of-four, created more than 230 invoices that mostly came from three companies but pertinent details such as transport, customer and billing information were missing.

On her return to work, the court heard that Afuie created a further two invoices before she was sacked and the matter reported to police.

Ms Colangeli said she had to see her GP after experiencing chest pains on her return to Australia.

“On the day of my return to office, I had to remain professional when confronting the accused. On that day, I was comforted by my 25-year-old son that made me break down and cry in his arms.

“This to me is not the way life should be. I spent half my life working extremely hard to build and grow a successful business.

“I feel like I’ve let my family down, causing conflict and a lack of communication. Building trust for an employee over seven years then this happens disadvantages the good people in my life.

“At 52 years of age, I was starting to commit less hours of work to spending more time with my family as I’ve missed many years with them,” Ms Colangeli said.

Judge Marich said Afuie offended clinically and relentlessly to defraud her employer and that the case was a serious example of deception of an employer.

‘The deception was reasonably sophisticated and very effective and endured over 16-and-a-half months and two further attempts on your return from leave signify that the scheme might have continued if it was not discovered.”

Afuie’s total sentence was three years and nine months.