Mental health invoices spark $71,000 legal action
Mining heavyweight Northern Star Resources is suing a former senior executive over tens of thousands of dollars allegedly spent without authorisation on a host of services.
Mining heavyweight Northern Star Resources is suing a former senior executive over tens of thousands of dollars allegedly spent without authorisation on a host of services.
The $11bn goldminer has filed an action in the Western Australian Supreme Court against Perth woman Peta Slocombe, a prominent psychologist who used to be Northern Star’s executive manager of capability and culture.
Northern Star’s writ alleges that Ms Slocombe “wrongfully and without authority” submitted $71,602.50 worth of invoices to the company for services that the company did not receive.
Five invoices worth a combined $56,000 came from Ms Slocombe’s company Agile Consulting Psychology. Those payments, the writ said, related to the One Million Lives mental health campaign, of which Ms Slocombe is listed as a partner.
Another three invoices worth $11,495 were submitted by Agile in relation to Curtin University’s Future of Work Institute, and another three invoices from Agile included $3680 relating to two psychologists.
According to the writ served on Ms Slocombe, Northern Star is also seeking the repayment of $12,612.18 of credit card payments that it says were for Ms Slocombe’s “personal benefit and not for the benefit of” the company.
“The first defendant has, despite demand, failed or refused to repay to the plaintiff in breach of the employment agreement, and the first defendant’s fiduciary duties owed to the plaintiff,” the writ says.
The mining company is also seeking interest on the outstanding amounts and legal costs.
Ms Slocombe told The Australian that the matter related to Northern Star’s sponsorship of a pro bono mental health initiative that it said it did not agree to, but which was within her delegated authority to sponsor.
“There is no suggestion that I personally benefited from this but I was a co-founder of the initiative which has been widely used by all other companies in the sector,” she said.
“They have all receipts and concede I had no personal benefit in any way. Their role as a partner and sponsor of (the) project has since withdrawn.”
Ms Slocombe oversaw the company’s mental health program during her time at Northern Star.
Northern Star declined to comment.