Kristen Prentice, 38, of Nathalia, pleaded guilty in Shepparton Magistrates’ Court to two charges of dishonestly obtaining property by deception.
The court heard Prentice had been employed as an accounts manager for supermarkets in Nathalia and Howlong and part of her role was making sure creditors and suppliers to both supermarkets were paid.
After Prentice went on maternity leave in May 2019, her employer discovered she had been paying herself by short paying creditors and suppliers.
Prentice would pay the creditor an amount and then was paying the rest of the money into her own account.
She did this 45 times between March 2018, and May 2019, at the Howlong supermarket, stealing a total of $46,962.03.
She also did it 26 times at the Nathalia supermarket, stealing a total of $20,508.18.
The court heard, in total, Prentice stole $67,470.21 from the two businesses.
Prentice’s solicitor Anthony Coote said his client was remorseful for her actions and had sent her former employer a text on June 26, 2019, apologising for her actions.
He said Prentice had also endeavoured to pay her former employer back the money she had stolen.
“It shows remorse and contrition,” he said.
“We often don’t see people pay restitution, and not of this amount.”
The court also heard Prentice did not have any criminal priors.
Magistrate Mary-Anne MacCallum sentenced Prentice to an 18-month community corrections order and ordered she pay back all the money she stole.
Prentice was given 30 days to pay back the money.
Ms MacCallum also ordered Prentice complete 180 hours of community work.
Up to 80 hours of mental health treatment and programs to reduce offending is able to count towards the community work hours.
In sentencing she said the deception lasted almost 16 months and that Prentice had been in a “position of trust”.
Ms MacCallum noted that after returning to work after maternity leave with her first child, Prentice’s position changed from permanent to casual and “the family was in financial distress”.
Ms MacCallum also noted that Prentice felt “genuinely bad” about what she did and she said there was a low risk of her re-offending.
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