Oakleigh woman steals $1m from parents’ pool business
A dishonest daughter swindled more than $1 million from her hardworking parents’ business so she could support her lavish lifestyle. But after almost seven years, her audacious crimes were caught — this is how.
VIC News
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A heartless thief with a penchant for expensive handbags swindled more than $1 million from her parents’ pool company to fund her lavish lifestyle.
Tanya Versace, 48, stole the cash from her hardworking parents George and Victoria Zukowski while working as a bookkeeper at their renowned PJ Pools and Spas business.
She splashed the cash on holidays and handbags.
The mother of two also billed the company for private expenses including the installation of a pool and renovations done on her Oakleigh home.
From September 2007 to May 2014, she duped her parents of a staggering $1,055,535.81 in 634 dishonest transactions.
Jailing her for five years and seven months, County Court Judge Douglas Trapnell described Versace’s conduct as “grave”.
“The audaciousness of your behaviour is breathtaking,” Judge Trapnell said.
“Your motive for committing these crimes was to support your extravagant lifestyle. For example, you admit to owning about 50 handbags, of which five you considered to be expensive and the most expensive cost about $5000.”
Versace pleaded guilty to two counts of obtaining financial advantage by deception, and six charges of theft.
The court heard her parents set up their Dandenong-based pool plastering business in 1973, expanding to become frontrunners in the pool construction industry.
In 1990, their son Peter Zukowksi became director and in 2005, Versace began working as office manager, controlling day-to-day operations, including accounts payable.
When legitimately paying a company creditor, Versace would add an amount to the purported payment, and transfer the extra into her own bank account.
Her crimes went unnoticed for more than six years, only being detected when her parents hired a business advisor in 2014 as part of a succession plan to hand over control of the company to Versace and her brother.
The business advisor reported “accounting anomalies” to Peter Zukowski, who contacted police after being unhappy with his sister’s responses when asking her about the suspicious transactions.
When Versace’s mother also confronted her, she denied stealing the cash and refused to talk to her about it.
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Judge Trapnell said Versace’s elderly parents had been left “extremely hurt” by their daughter’s crimes, with the company they had worked hard to build almost going under in 2014 because of her actions.
“Your crimes were relatively sophisticated, well planned and executed,” he said.
“Your parents are now unable to retire as all their superannuation has been ploughed back into the company to keep it afloat.”
But Judge Trapnell said Versace was “undoubtedly regretful” for her behaviour, and considered her prospects of rehabilitation as “good”.
He said her time in custody would be more difficult knowing she is not there to support her two children, aged 15 and 21.
Versace will be eligible for parole after serving three years behind bars.