Helen Rosamond: Alleged NAB fraudster attempts to shed bail conditions
A woman accused of defrauding millions from one of Australia’s biggest banks tried to get her bail conditions softened. A judge had other ideas.
A former Sydney corporate high-flyer who allegedly defrauded NAB out of $26.7 million has abandoned an attempt alter her bail conditions after a judge threatened to give cops further scope to check her whereabouts.
Helen Mary Rosamond will be arraigned on Friday for trial in the District Court on 74 fraud and corruption offences after her arrest in March 2019.
The Potts Point woman has previously pleaded not guilty to the charges, which allege she gave benefits to former NAB boss Andrew Thorburn’s chief of staff Rosemary Rogers in return for inflated contracts for her events business Human Group.
She went before the court on Tuesday in an attempt to shed an “unnecessary” bail condition requiring her to present herself to Kings Cross police station three times per week, arguing she posed no risk of fleeing Sydney.
Judge Michael Adams told the court he intended to reduce her in-person reporting to Wednesdays only and permit Ms Rosamond to call the station on Mondays and Fridays.
Judge Adams, however, said he was inclined to add a condition allowing police to call the 45-year-old twice per day, seven days per week, calls which he said she must answer and state her location.
Her barrister Matthew Breeze quickly withdrew the application.
The condition was not sought by Crown prosecutor Burton Ko, who had opposed the application on the grounds Ms Rosamond’s British birth and ties to Queensland made her a flight risk.
Despite her “clear motive to flee”, Judge Adams said international travel was near impossible in the climate, and Ms Rosamond would not be out of reach of police should she travel to Queensland.
“Queensland is still part of Australia, you know,” he said. “Even if some people think that’s unfortunate.”
Mr Breeze had argued although she faced serious charges, his client was tied to Sydney by her two children and the need to care for her sick mother.
Ms Rosamond was also working two days per week at a local pharmacy, he said.
She successfully applied to download an encrypted messaging service to her phone, something previously banned under her bail conditions, in order to communicate with her children.
Judge Adams ordered Ms Rosamond hand over her phone’s password to the officer in charge if police ever had need to check the encrypted application.
Mr Breeze had initially hesitated to agree to that condition, saying his client was “very concerned” about the police trying to access her phone.
Officers had already been exercising their power to keep track of her “any time of night or day”, he said.
Ms Rosamond also faces civil action brought by NAB in the Supreme Court relating to the charges.
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