Bookkeeper jailed for stealing from Aspendale golf club to fund gambling
A CROOKED bean counter has failed to cough-up the cash she stole from a once-thriving golf club to support her secret life as a gambler.
Law & Order
Don't miss out on the headlines from Law & Order. Followed categories will be added to My News.
A CROOKED bean counter has failed to cough-up the cash she stole from a once thriving golf club to support her secret life as a gambler.
Sharon Breyiannis, 52, of Bonbeach, ripped off $331,855 from the Rossdale Golf Club in Aspendale, bringing it to the brink of ruin.
Breyiannis was given time by County Court Judge Graeme Hicks to pay back the club before he sentenced her, but she failed to do so.
Nevertheless, Judge Hicks accepted the club was likely to be repaid, although it was unknown exactly when.
The court heard prosecutors want the full slice of her half-share in the family’s $880,000 home because she used almost $20,000 in stolen funds to make repayments on it.
Breyiannis is expected to contest the application in a separate hearing, arguing she should not have to pay any more than what she stole.
Judge Hicks sentenced Breyiannis to three years and four months in jail, with a non-parole period of two years.
He condemned the mother of two sons — one of which is undertaking a bachelor of criminal justice — for her gross breach of trust.
But he took into account her pleas of guilty, genuine remorse, previous good character, delays in facing justice and the probability the club would be repaid.
The court heard the golf club lost hundreds of members while its board struggled to understand how it was going broke.
At an earlier hearing, Crown prosecutor Stephen Devlin said thousands of dollars were stolen from the club’s “halfway house”, an oncourse shed catering mostly to thirsty golfers.
He told the court Breyiannis, who was never formally trained as an accountant, tried to cover her tracks with more dodgy entries.
But her feeble attempts were discovered by real accountants during an audit and she resigned amid suspicion she was a crook.
Breyiannis pleaded guilty to three charges of theft, which covered 66 actual instances of the crime between July 2009 and October 2011 while she acted as club membership and financial officer.
In victim impact statements read to the court, one former board member said he resigned due to the financial mess, losing friends and suffering from guilt, anger and a sense of failure.
The court heard Breyiannis blew the ill-gotten money on poker machines between the golf club and Bonbeach.
Breyiannis, who has already been in custody for 26 days, snuck a kiss from her supportive husband before being taken back to jail.