Dodgy bookkeeper Robyn Lunney fronts court over theft
A serial thief hired as a bookkeeper preyed on the trust of her employer and fleeced the business of more than $500,000 over four years.
South East
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A dishonest bookkeeper who swindled her employer of more than $500,000 over four years to fund her “frivolous extravagances” has been sent to jail.
Robyn Lunney, 48, admitted to a charge of theft weeks out from her trial and appeared in the County Court this week for sentencing.
She was sentenced to five years and nine months in prison and ordered to serve four years before being eligible for parole.
Lunney fleeced Cut Price Kitchens, a small family-owned business based in Dandenong, while working as a bookkeeper between May 2016 and July 2020 when her employment ended.
The business owner’s ex-partner took over Lunney’s role and unraveled her dishonesty and investigations revealed she made unauthorized payments from the company’s account into her own account on 221 occasions.
The total amount stolen was $561,922 and her offending began just weeks after her employment began.
Judge Gerard Mullaly said a particularly aggravating feature of the case was that Lunney was serving a community corrections order for similar offending while stealing money from Cut Price Kitchens.
Her dishonest conduct only stopped after her employment came to an end in 2020, he said.
“The thefts were regular and relentless, occurring weekly for a total period of four years and started weeks of you starting work,” Judge Mullaly said.
“What makes your crime a serious example of theft is the sheer amount involved. This is on any measure a significant amount of money.
“Your own account revealed your self-indulgent greed and used the stolen money to fund frivolous extravagances.”
In his victim impact statement, the Cut Price Kitchens owner said Lunney betrayed the trust placed on her in such a pivotal role within the business which suffered heavily as a result of her offending.
“The aftermath (of her actions) required significant time and effort to rectify financial discrepancies, diverting attention from day-to-day running of the business. The emotional toll of this betrayal cannot be overstated,” he said.
His ex-partner said she had had the onerous task of identifying the magnitude of the loss and explaining it to the owner.
Judge Mullaly said Lunney had a “very concerning” history of similar offending which increased her moral culpability.
“In short, you are or have become a serial thief preying on the trust of unsuspecting employers.,” he said.
Lunney’s first dishonest offending involved theft and false accounting entries from a small business in 2007 saw her being sent to prison for just over two years.
“Those crimes had a very similar modus operandi to these. The amounts involved were just under $300,000,” the judge said.
In 2013, she was back before the court for dishonesty offending and received a combination of jail and community corrections order.
Lunney was the subject of that CCO when she started fleecing Cut Price Kitchens.
