Werribee grandma gets more jail time added for stealing $463k from employer

A Werribee grandma who stole more than $460,000 from her car dealership employer to feed her gambling habit must serve at least nine extra months in jail after prosecutors appealed her “lenient” sentence.

Kerry Caulfield will spend nine extra months in jail after prosecutors fought to have time added to her sentence.

A Werribee grandma who stole more than $460,000 from her car dealership employer must serve at least nine extra months behind bars following a successful appeal.

Kerry Joan Caulfield, 49, stole $463,028 from Hopper Motor Group — which has six car dealerships in Werribee, Essendon and the city — to feed her gambling habit.

The Court of Appeal this month overturned her previous sentence of nine months’ jail and a two-year community corrections order, agreeing with prosecutors that Judge Susan Cohen got it wrong.

The court resentenced Caulfield to two years behind bars, with a non-parole period of 18 months, declaring her original punishment too soft.

In handing down its decision, the court found the earlier sentence “fell far short” of what should be handed down to white-collar offenders who stole substantial amounts of money.

MORE: HUGE FINE FOR FILTHY HOPPERS CROSSING EATERY

REFUGEE’S DRUNKEN PUB SESSION BEFORE HOMELESS WOMAN’S RAPE

SHE JUST ‘DIDN’T LIKE IT’: COUNCIL WORKER’S HARASSMENT BLOW-UP

“We are constrained to the view that this sentence was not merely lenient, or merciful, but manifestly inadequate,” the court said.

Caulfield, who worked as the bookkeeper for Hopper Motor Group, pleaded guilty to pocketing between $1000 and $21,000 each month between February 2015 and February 2018 and falsifying accounting records to cover up her crimes.

When questioned by police in June last year, she revealed she had a gambling problem and claimed she had used 90 per cent of the stolen money to fund her addiction.

“If I got the banking out and there was, say a $500 deposit, then I just wouldn’t record that for the day,” she said.

“I would use that money … take, gamble with the intent to try and win, obviously, to pay whatever I needed to pay or to pay that back the next day.

“I ultimately knew it was wrong … some days I didn’t care, some days I cared but couldn’t do anything about it.”

Hopper Motor Group was forced to lay off some employees as a result of the financial strain caused by Caulfield’s crime, the court heard.