Scoundrel bookkeeper Sharleen Henderson jailed for rorting $158,000 from Echo Interpreting
A scoundrel bookkeeper who put an essential Boronia Auslan interpretation agency out of business after stealing $158,000 to fund her “family unit” discussed how to save the crumbling business while “blatantly lying” to her victim.
A scoundrel bookkeeper who left dozens without work and disrupted Auslan services after stealing $158,000 from a deaf interpretation agency in Melbourne’s east has been jailed.
Sharleen Henderson, 36, was sentenced in the County Court on Friday to six months’ jail after pleading guilty to multiple counts of theft.
Henderson fleeced $157,883 through 178 bogus transactions from her Boronia-based employer, Echo Interpreting, between June 2016 and April 2019.
Henderson manipulated the company’s MYOB accounting system, meddled with payroll records and created fictitious names to commit her villainous conduct.
The mother funnelled the cash into bank accounts she controlled and accounts in the names of her two children.
Echo owner Danielle Don curbed spending including sponsorship and donations after she became “concerned” the business she built from scratch had a cashflow problem.
Ms Don took on extra roles, worked longer hours and took out a business loan in a desperate bid to save her crippled company, the court was told.
Ms Don discovered her business owed huge tax debts after she took over bookkeeping duties from Henderson who quit in April last year.
Ms Don engaged an accountant who told her the company was unable to trade and must be placed into liquidation.
Henderson’s skulduggery went undetected until an Echo employee contacted Ms Don about an $11,000 group certificate for hours she never worked nor was paid for.
Police unravelled Henderson’s thievery through analysing her bank accounts.
Henderson was arrested and interviewed in November 2019, but wasn’t charged until July this year.
In her victim impact statement heard in court Ms Don said she considered Henderson to be a “good friend”.
“I wanted to support Sharleen as a single mum,” Ms Don said.
“We became very close … we had many years of what I considered a valued relationship.
“We used to help each other by feeding each other pets … I always allowed Sharleen paid time off (to look after her children).”
Ms Don said she accommodated Henderson every wish including allowing her to work less hours on the same pay before Henderson finished work “earlier and earlier”.
She also bought gifts for Henderson and her children and purchased two birds to keep the woman company in the office.
Ms Don also covered $1500 for Henderson and her children to stay at lavish resort with all meals paid and gave her $5000 for school fees.
Henderson’s thievery left dozens of interpreters and other professionals out of work and schools and other institutions without much-needed Auslan services.
Ms Don said she and Henderson often discussed the plight of the company but her former friend had been “blatantly lying to my face”.
“She always seemed concerned and together we thought of solutions,” Ms Don said.
Ms Don said she put her house “on the line” to save the business she had “built up over 14 years”
“(We) only made a very small profit,” Ms Don said.
“In one foul swoop everything I built up … was taken away.”
Ms Don managed to buy her business back and had almost rebuilt it when COVID-19 “hit the company like a sledgehammer”.
She said none of her employees were eligible for government assistance including JobKeeper because the re-established company had not been trading long enough.
The court was told Henderson splashed the cash on St Joseph’s College fees and the “family unit”.
Judge Gavan Meredith jailed Henderson, who now lives in Carrum Downs, but did add any unpaid community work to the sentence.
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