Not-for-profit fraudster tells court she was catfished by American soldier
A woman who stole $150,000 from a community not-for-profit has claimed in court she gave the money to her online lover who turned out to be a fake.
A mother-of-two who stole almost $150,000 from a community not-for-profit says she was being catfished by a fake American soldier who romanced her online.
Melanie Kilgour, 44, will soon be sentenced after pleading guilty to two fraud charges for transferring money in 34 transactions from the Alexandra Community Hub in mid-2019 while employed as a financial controller and coordinator.
Judge Michael Tinney in the Shepparton County Court on Thursday said the fraud was a “systematic, serious suite of offending” against an organisation that distributed money to communities in the regional Victorian small town.
He said Kilgour was still making excuses through her “unimpressive” letter of apology to the court.
“I think she’s still grappling with the magnitude of what she’s done, and looking for explanations, or excuses, when there are none, actually,” he said.
Kilgour’s lawyer Naomi Smith told the court bank records showed Kilgour transferred almost all of the stolen money out of her personal account.
Bank investigations after the fact revealed the money went to a number of people in America and Malaysia, she said.
She said the money went to a man purporting to be an American soldier named Ty Donaldson, who Kilgour believed at the time was “her partner or lover”.
Ms Smith said there were scam warnings online about this account, with others ripped off in the same circumstances.
She said the scammer fed Kilgour a series of lies while asking for money, eventually promising to meet her outside a bank in Alexandra.
“She waited but he did not show,” she said.
A separate online account then tried to blackmail Kilgour by threatening to distribute intimate photos she had sent to her fake lover, Ms Smith said.
But Judge Tinney said there was scant evidence for the catfish claim, with Kilgour unable to show any messages between her and her fake boyfriend because she said her accounts had been wiped.
Ms Smith showed the court a screenshot of WhatsApp messages between Kilgour and a man demanding money to prevent her intimate photos being distributed, a conversation that occurred after the fraud.
“I concede the only evidence I have of any communications postdates the offending period,” she said.
Kilgour has sold her house to repay the money but still owes about $30,000 to the community hub, the court heard.
Ms Smith said it would be difficult for her to be separated from her family if she was put in prison.
“The sad reality is that every time someone is sent to prison, it has an impact on others,” Judge Tinney said. “It’s even sadder when it doesn’t.”
He extended Kilgour’s bail but warned her it didn’t mean she should expect to be let off without a jail sentence for obtaining financial advantage by deception and making a false document.
The matter will return to court on July 1.