Arbory Bar & Eatery manager Scott Markworth avoids jail after stealing $327k from till
A former general manager of a popular city riverside bar pilfered weekend takings and stole hundreds of dollars from a staff tip jar during an almost year-long reign of thieving. Then he fibbed about what he did with the cash.
South East
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A pilfering manager at a popular city bar who stole $327,000 direct from the till then buried the cash in the ground has escaped jail time.
Scott Markworth, 36, was sentenced in the County Court yesterday to a two-year community corrections order after pleading guilty to fraud and theft charges.
Markworth was general manager of Arbory Bar & Eatery when he pocketed almost $327,000 via 7793 voided transactions between April 2015 and March 2016.
Markworth, who helped set up the popular riverside bar in 2014, ripped the cash from the till while in charge of the venue’s weekend takings.
The court heard Markworth’s monthly thieving began low but “increased significantly” as time went on.
Markworth also spent Arbory’s cash on various “tech devices” including an iPad, and helped himself to $500 from the staff tip jar.
Markworth’s skulduggery came unstuck after a venue manager reported him to Arbory directors.
Markworth fibbed to his bosses that $186,000 was spent on “legitimate business expenses”.
He also told the venue manager that Arbory directors authorised him to void the transactions so they could get a rent reduction from Metro Trains.
The venue manager didn’t buy his story nor did the directors who offered Markworth the opportunity to show cause or resign.
Markworth, who resigned in April 2016, later visited Arbory head office with $350,000 cash made up with “wet” notes.
Markworth explained the money was wet because it had been “buried”.
Markworth was investigated by police in July 2017 but he wasn’t charged until September 2018.
The court heard Markworth was an “intelligent man” who completed a media degree with honours at RMIT.
Markworth then worked his way up in the hospitality industry where became a heavy-hitter of Melbourne’s bar and dining scene.
Markworth explained his offending was the “only way to help resolve high pressure debts resulting from a stressful financial and personal situation from a failed business”.
Judge Frances Dalziel said Markworth committed “serious offending” which involved a “significant breach of trust”.
However, Judge Dalziel accepted Markworth suffered a “serious mental illness” which undermined his “judgment at the time of his offending”.
She also took into account Markworth’s remorse, that he repaid the money, and his co-operation and early guilty plea.
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