Former State Revenue Office programmer Marc Thompson pleads guilty to $200,000 fraud

A former Vermont State Revenue Office IT guru fleeced $200,000 to shop at Costco and indulge in family dinners at Nando’s.

Marc Thompson rorted $200,000 to take his family to dinner at Nando’s.

A former State Revenue Office computer nerd who rorted unclaimed money reserves to pay off credit card debt and take his family to Nando’s and Groove Train has been jailed.

Marc Thompson, 47, was sentenced in the County Court on Friday to a minimum seven-month jail term after pleading guilty to multiple rolled-up fraud charges.

Thompson diddled State Revenue Office computer systems to siphon $212,315 via multiple bogus unclaimed money transactions between July 2017 and January 2020.

The Vermont dad’s racket came unstuck after an State Revenue Office overnight transaction bounced back due to an irregularity.

An internal investigation uncovered “suspicious claims” and Thompson’s persistent skulduggery in January 2020.

Senior State Revenue Office staff were poised to question Thompson but he sensed his goose was cooked, skipped the building and never returned.

Senior staff attempted to call Thompson several times but he never answered the phone.

The matter was referred to police who raided Thompson’s Vermont home on February 27, 2020.

Investigators seized multiple devices including a PC, a laptop, an iPhone and Thompson’s work computer and State Revenue Office ID card.

Thompson, a father and husband who had worked at the State Revenue Office for 20 years, gave a “no comment interview” when questioned by police.

Investigators discovered SQL scripts among Thompson’s devices which the court heard were used to agitate computer systems and enable unclaimed money transactions to be changed.

Thompson used his “high-level access” to alter unknown customer’s details, lodge bogus unclaimed money claims then funnel the cash into his own bank account.

The court heard Thompson made a futile attempt to “cover his tracks” after his racket was exposed.

Thompson, who earned a whopping $155,000 per year, gave evidence he was bankrupt from 2014 to 2017 due to credit card debt and money “mismanagement”.

The defence submitted Thompson flittered his ill-gotten gains at Kmart, Costco and dinners at Groove Train and Nando’s.

“It’s not exactly a Vue de monde style extravagance..,” the defence submitted

Judge Gavan Meredith said Thompson was “augmenting his lifestyle”.

“He using part of it, for want of a better word, daily funds that the family lives on,” Judge Meredith said.

“For whatever reason he’s chosen not to deploy it in other ways but I don’t necessarily see that as mitigatory …

The defence responded Thompson used the money to “supplement his lifestyle” which “falls in the category of greed not need”.

“This is a person who is chronically poor at managing money and living within his means …,” the defence submitted.

“It places the (offending) in some context … he was able to push the awareness of wrongfulness to one side.”

“What does that mean?,” Judge Meredith said.

“He’s taking the money and he’s made a mental choice … he gets the gratification, the use of the funds …”

Thompson was jailed for a maximum 15 months.

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