Schnitz accountant Donna Zanin jailed for stealing $500k from franchise
A jetsetting accountant lived an extravagant lifestyle of fine dining and boozy parties using the half a million dollars she’d stolen from her employer. Now, she has been sentenced for her crimes.
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A jetsetting accountant with a crumby idea to steal more than half a million dollars from chicken restaurant, Schnitz, has been jailed.
Donna Zanin, 42, used her “unfettered access” to the company’s finances to transfer herself $551,451 to fund her “extravagant lifestyle”, filled with overseas travel, fine dining and boozy parties.
Zanin was jailed for at least 16 months on Tuesday after she admitted to the theft, which was carried out in 57 individual transactions between 2014-19, with amounts ranging from $2000 to in excess of $20,000 at a time.
The financial controller, who had been working at Schnitz Australia since 2009, was pocketing $130,000 salary on top of her illegal endeavours.
The County Court heard Zanin’s cocky scheme came undone in early 2019 after the company hired a second accountant and began investigating several suspicious transactions.
While waiting at a police station after handing herself in June last year, the Melbourne woman texted her boss to apologise, saying: “I knew I would be caught eventually … I want to go to jail”.
Zanin confessed she had been “self sabotaging” herself and wanted the amount to be so extreme she would be sent to jail and she could “reset” her life.
Zanin told police she blew her spoils on anything she could spend money on: “You know expensive restaurants and alcohol and parties and a lot of travel”.
She presented her passport to detectives with 34 stamps from international flights she took to holiday destinations including the United States, Singapore, New Zealand and United Arab Emirates.
Judge David Sexton labelled Zanin’s explanation for the offending as “bizarre”.
“I am left somewhat bewildered,” Judge Sexton said.
He said while Zanin’s admissions to police were detailed and candid, the manner in which she spent the stolen money was not consistent with her explanation.
“You simply sustained an extravagant lifestyle through money stolen from your employer,” Judge Sexton said.
The court heard the schnitzel-specialists were forced to convene an emergency board meeting after Zanin’s confession due to the company’s financial woes.
Judge Sexton said he accepted Zanin was remorseful, but general deterrence was an important factor in this type of crime.
“Offending of this kind is easy to commit and often difficult to detect,” he said.
“The message needs to be sent to anyone contemplating exploiting their position for dishonourable purposes,” Judge Sexton said.
Judge Sexton considered Zanin’s early guilty plea, lack of criminal history and good prospects of rehabilitation when sentencing her to a maximum sentence of two years and three months behind bars.
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