A manager caught misappropriating over $85k from an ALH pub has received a sympathetic sentence to her latest conviction, due to serious health concerns.
The 37-year-old woman [name withheld] worked at ALH’s Wilsonton Hotel in Toowoomba, with duties including banking poker machine takings.
Staff at the Hotel realised there was something wrong when the woman – who was normally ‘immaculately’ dressed – showed up to count the day’s takings in her pyjamas.
It was found she had kept cash over a five-month period from 30 November, 2018, and also taken $1,200 from the TAB float, according to Crown prosecutor Shontelle Petrie.
She was sacked, and said to have then spiralled somewhat out of control, engaging in scams including passing forged cheques, for which she was subsequently convicted but given a suspended jail term.
Her barrister, Frank Martin, explained how she had more recently moved in with her mother, in New South Wales, and had repaid nearly $14,000 of the money so far. She has begun receiving counselling for problems with mental health, stemming from childhood trauma, which has given rise to issues with alcohol and gambling.
Martin requested his client’s sentence also be suspended, rather than her be released on parole, so she would not have to remain in Queensland and could instead return to her mother’s residence, where she can get support.
Judge Dennis Lynch QC accepted the psychological reports. He ordered the defendant be jailed for three years, but with the term suspended after she has served six months, noting the balance of the sentence over her head for the next three years should serve to prevent her reoffending, lest she risk facing the whole term.
“It’s obvious to me what you’ve got to do is look after your mental health,” said Lynch.
