Christian Marshman avoids jail sentence for dishonestly obtaining funds from TAC

A former TAC employee who defrauded his company thousands of dollars to fuel his gambling habit has been sentenced in court.

Christian Marshman

A former Transport Accident Commission employee who defrauded his workplace of $64,000 has avoided jail.

Christian Marshman, 29, was sentenced on Tuesday in the Geelong Magistrates’ Court for stealing money from the agency over an 11 month peiod to fuel his gambling addiction.

Magistrate Franz Holzer described the Portland man’s offending as a “breach of trust” but accepted the offending occurred as a result of his gambling addiction.

Marshman’s lawyer told the court his client had been “groomed” by a betting agency and had turned to gambling as a result of his grandfather’s death.

He also told the court his client had made some significant repayments and had set up a payment plan, which would take about eight years to pay back.

His lawyer also said Marshman had entered into a program to ensure he didn’t gamble with any betting agencies and was cooperative with police throughout investigations.

Two months ago, Marshman pleaded guilty to dishonestly obtaining funds in the Geelong Magistrates’ Court.

The court heard Marshman commenced his employment with the TAC in 2014 and in 2019 began working in the loss of earnings department

While working in the loss of earnings department, Marshman manipulated payments from former clients of the TAC and diverted them into his own bank accounts between December 30, 2021 and November 21, 2022.

Police prosecutor Senior Constable Georgie Hadzig said in November 2022, a forensic team from the TAC became aware of ongoing payment claims to clients with no valid reasoning.

The court heard that these clients did not require income assistance.

“A review and data matching analysis was conducted and it was established that there were a number of suspicious and undocumented changes of new bank account details to four TAC clients,” Ms Hadzig said.

The court heard medical certificates for the four clients had been waived, and their address had been changed to Brougham Street, Geelong.

The TAC became aware of the claims and as a result, Marshman was interviewed by police in February this year.

Mr Holzer sentenced Marshman to a community corrections order with convictions and also ordered him to undertake 150 hours of community work.

Originally published as Christian Marshman avoids jail sentence for dishonestly obtaining funds from TAC