Grandmother who stole almost $500,00 from boss has sentence increased
A gambler who lost almost $500,000 of her car dealer boss’s money feeding the pokies in Melbourne has seen her sentence bumped up after an appeal court found it “manifestly inadequate”.
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A gambling addicted granny who stole close to $500,000 from her boss has had her jail term more than tripled on appeal.
Kerry Joan Caulfiled, 50, pinched $463,000 while working as a bookkeeper for Hopper Motor Group, which operates six car dealerships around Melbourne.
Almost all of it was wasted at the pokies with Caulfield stealing more to cover her losses and never getting ahead.
“So if I got the banking out and there was, say a $500 deposit, then I just wouldn’t record that for the day … I would use that money … take it, gamble with the intent to try and win obviously to pay whatever I needed to pay or to pay that back the next day,” Caulfield admitted to police.
“So if that didn’t happen, then the next day I would use another one to cover that one … obviously as it progressed, the amounts got bigger … and the problem got bigger,” she said.
“I ultimately knew it was wrong … some days I didn’t care. Some days [I] cared but couldn’t do anything about it.”
On a monthly basis between 2015 and 2018, she stole amounts between $1000 and $21,000 from her employer of 16 years.
In that time Caulfield faked ledger entries, failed to account for funds received, and altered company spreadsheets to try and hide her crimes.
She pleaded guilty in the County Court to a single count of theft covering 84 separate acts.
Caulfield blamed her gambling habit on the trauma of finding her ex-husband dead at his home in 2014 and an “emotionally controlling” second marriage.
Despite facing a 10 year maximum jail term for her crimes, Caulfield was jailed in November for nine months and ordered to complete a two-year community corrections order.
But the Director of Public Prosecutions appealed the sentence on the grounds it was manifestly inadequate.
The Court of Appeal agreed and today increased that sentence to two years and six months, with a non parole period of 18 months.
“We are constrained to the view that this sentence was not merely lenient, or merciful, but manifestly inadequate,” Justices Mark Weinberg, Stephen Kaye and Phillip Priest said.
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The court found the original sentence “fell far short of giving effect to the principles laid down for sentencing white collar offenders who have engaged in theft of substantial amounts, and particularly in circumstances of egregious breach of trust.”
“In this case, the breach also involved the betrayal by the respondent of the personal friendship and trust reposed in her by the owner of the business,” the court said.
For help with a gambling addiction, go to gamblershelp.com.au.