Georgia Sellick, 31, of Kyabram, pleaded guilty in the County Court to three counts of theft.
The court heard she stole a total of $261,761 from three businesses she worked as a bookkeeper for between March 2019 and September 2021.
This included more than $151,000 from JAG Plumbing owned by Jarrod Gale, and almost $59,000 from Campaspe Hydraulics and Engineering and more than $51,000 from AW Ag Contracting, which are both owned by Adam Whipp.
The missing money was first discovered in September 2021 when Sellick had stopped working for Mr Whipp’s businesses and the new bookkeeper noticed some abnormalities.
At first, she found $23,000 that had been deposited in Sellick’s own ATO account.
When the bookkeeper questioned the mother of three about it, Sellick repaid the money in two days and told the bookkeeper not to tell Mr Whipp about it.
In January more money was discovered to be missing from Mr Whipp’s accounts, and a forensic accountant was used to find just how much money had been taken.
In May or June 2022, Mr Whipp told Mr Gale about the money that had been taken from his accounts.
Mr Gale then discovered 164 separate transactions totalling more than $151,000 had been taken from his accounts, with most using false descriptions of where the money went.
In sentencing Sellick, Judge Paul Higham noted Sellick’s defence counsel argued the offending was “not particularly sophisticated”.
Summing up the defence, Judge Higham said Sellick could not say where the money had been spent, with some going towards a house they were building and others to “expenses over time”.
He also said the Sellick had believed she was “doing the right thing” by her children so they “did not experience the financial difficulties you did as an adolescent”.
However, he said both Sellick and her husband were both working and the time, and were building a house.
The judge noted all the money had eventually been paid back to Sellick’s employers but said the thefts had been serious.
“It was a gross abuse of the trust placed in you by your employers,” he said.
Judge Higham said the thefts were for Sellick’s “own personal gain” and that she had used her employers’ businesses as “extra income”.
“You knew what you were doing was wrong, and you had ample time to stop,” he said.
Sellick was sentenced in Melbourne County Court to 10 months in prison, to be followed by a 24-month community corrections order.
The corrections order will include mental health assessment and treatment.
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