Woman sent to jail for stealing $250,000 from employer

Oct 18, 2019

A Rushworth woman who stole more than $250,000 from her Shepparton employer cried and shouted she was "sorry" after being jailed for 14 months yesterday.

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The family of Joanne Whiteley, 48, sat in tears in Shepparton's County Court as Judge John Smallwood sentenced her to a partially suspended sentence of 30 months for the offending which continued for almost 12 years.

Whiteley stole $255,433 from her employer JDK Management between May 2006 and October 2017 while she was working as a full-time accounts manager.

She changed cheques from customer's names to her name or into cash with 86 cheques - ranging in value from $475 to more than $17,000 - deposited into her own bank account across the two years.

Judge Smallwood said the offending was a serious breach of trust and the money had not been paid back since her arrest on November 6 last year.

“This is a situation where there has been no restitution ... clearly a very serious breach of trust the people you were stealing from were friends,” he said.

“The offending only stopped by discovery.”

Judge Smallwood acknowledged a victim impact statement from one of the owners of JDK Management which outlined the "sense of betrayal from someone trusted" and caused "ongoing grief and concern".

He said documentation provided to the court indicated there was no financial hardship or a needs basis for the offending.

Judge Smallwood said bank transactions showed a number of lifestyle expenses including $3500 on clothes, $1400 on Ticketek and a number of transactions transferring money to family members.

“I do understand how in a situation like this it can become a pattern of behavior over a long period of time ... you really disassociated from it rather than having a desperate need for the money,” Judge Smallwood said.

When sentencing he acknowledged the ill health of Whiteley's parents, saying he took into account her being incarcerated would create a greater burden.

He referred to a report provided by a psychologist which diagnosed Whiteley with an extreme level of depression, which Judge Smallwood accepted was a "very difficult thing" for her and would make it more difficult in a custodial environment.

Judge Smallwood said he also took into account Whiteley's lack of prior convictions, the fact the offending was out of character and came as a massive shock to her family, her prospects of rehabilitation which he described as "relatively good" and her low chance of re-offending.

But Judge Smallwood said the sentence must also address denunciation and appropriate punishment for the offending.

“People who steal over such long periods of time must know if you do it you are going to have to go to jail ... it would be an exceptional situation for the person not to be given an active custodial sentence,” he said.

Whiteley was sentenced to 30 months prison, with 14 months to be served and 16 months suspended for a period of three years.