Toowoomba car salesman jailed for four years on fraud charge

A city car salesman who defrauded his employer of more than $150,000 blamed an expensive divorce and gambling for his offending. He has now been jailed.

He was jailed for four years after pleading guilty to a $150,000 fraud as an employee.

A car salesman who ripped off his Toowoomba employer of $151,000 has been jailed for four years.

David James Craigen blamed an expensive divorce and gambling problems for his offending which arose from his employment with the Armstrong Auto Group.

Crown prosecutor Ellen Fletcher told Toowoomba District Court Craigen had over a 10 month period from November 2018 sold 15 vehicles to a third party, the money for which he had pocketed either in cash, bank transfer or cheque.

The matter came to light when a fellow employee found a car which had been in the Armstrong Auto Group lot at a relative’s home and asked where it had been bought.

Investigations found the 15 cars had been missing from the books and when asked about it Craigen had initially told his employer that the vehicles were under consignment, Ms Fletcher said.

However, he had come clean the next day, she said.

Craigen, 54, pleaded guilty to fraud as an employee to more than $100,000.

He had been sacked as a result of the offending but had since put $100,000 in trust to be paid back to his former employer as compensation.

His barrister David Jones told the court his client had been a subcontractor and had obtained a large tax debt due to his failure to pay the required tax and superannuation.

After his divorce Craigen was paying $800 a week in maintenance as well as other payments to his former wife and found himself in financial difficulty.

His client had worked hard to save up the $100,000 to repay his former employer but he had no further assets to make up the other $50,000, he said.

His client was to be sentenced on Monday but he spent that day putting things away in storage in the knowledge he would be going to jail for his offending, Mr Jones said.

Judge Anthony Rafter SC said the $100,000 compensation would see the sentence reduced but Craigen had to spend time in jail.

Judge Rafter sentenced him to four years in jail but ordered the term be suspended after he had served nine months with the balance to hang over his head for four years.