Sunbury mum Jessica Wilkes pleads guilty to defrauding Coolaroo medical clinic $100,000
A mother-of-three who worked in finance at a local medical centre siphoned almost $100,000 out of the business over two years, blowing it on personal expenses including childcare.
North West
Don't miss out on the headlines from North West. Followed categories will be added to My News.
A mother-of-three who worked as a finance assistant at a northern suburbs medical clinic has pleaded guilty to defrauding the business out of almost $100,000 over a two-year period.
Sunbury woman Jessica Wilkes, 37, was employed by the Coolaroo Clinic when she fraudulently siphoned $96,889.20 worth of wages into her own bank accounts.
Wilkes even paid for her children’s daycare in Sunbury nine times directly from the medical centre’s accounts, a total amount of $8809.49.
The offending took place between March 2, 2015 and March 3, 2017 and involved 61 unauthorised transactions, with the largest individual deception being a $6746.36 transfer into her own bank account on May 23, 2016.
The smallest amount was $400 to pay for childcare on October 16, 2015.
Wilkes used transaction descriptions of names of several businesses in an attempt to hide her criminal activity, including Leader News, medical supplier Rollex Group, JT Handyman Service, Officeworks, Telstra, Australia Post and AAA Glass.
She was arrested after handing herself in at the Broadmeadows police station on August 2 last year where she made admissions to the offending.
Wilkes pleaded guilty to one rolled up charge of dishonestly obtaining property by deception in the Broadmeadows Magistrates’ Court on November 26 last year.
Her sentence was deferred until April 3, where it was again deferred until June 12 while Wilkes takes steps towards rehabilitation.
The court heard on November 26 that the Australian Taxation Office tipped off the Coolaroo Clinic to the offending when a former employee raised discrepancies in their PAYG summary. It was then handed to police to investigate.
Magistrate Abigail Burchill said the amount constituted serious offending and the sentence needed to show the public there would be a punishment to deter this type of crime.
“This is a breach of trust at a gargantuan level,” Ms Burchill said.
“The Coolaroo Clinic does such a service to this community.”
The court heard Wilkes had previously been given a community based order in 2005 for another dishonesty matter when she was 22 years old.
Leader contacted the Coolaroo Clinic but they said it would be inappropriate to comment on the matter.
Wilkes was employed by the medical clinic from May 5, 2014 to August 2, 2017.
MORE: CHARGES OVER 30 BURGLARIES IN CITY’S NORTH
HEAVILY ARMED POLICE CORNER TEENS IN ST ALBANS