An Ormeau mother has been jailed for nine years after embezzling $1.7 million from a not-for-profit employment agency.
Between 2009 and 2015 Amanda Smith, 37, embezzled more than $1.7 million from Smart Employment Solutions, a Nerang-based organisation that helps find jobs for asylum seekers and people with disabilities.
She was this morning sentenced in the Southport District Court after pleading guilty to fraud by an employee of more than $30,000 and will be eligible for parole in October 2019.
The court was told the woman, who worked as an administrative and payroll officer for the company, had pocketed money that should have transferred from employee’s pay packets to the Australian Taxation Office.
Smith changed banking details for the ATO to her own accounts on 127 occasions over the six year period before she was discovered by the tax office in June 2015.
The court Smart Employment Solutions was now $3.4 million out of pocket after having to repay the ATO the money Smith embezzled, which they had already paid to employees.
Smith’s lawyer, Michael McMillan, argued Smith did not have the capacity to repay the money, despite the fact only $124,000 had been traced to tattoo studios, jewellery and baby stores.
The court also heard Smith had spent some of the money on overseas holidays, cars and a special interest military vehicle for her husband.
Mr McMillan argued a psychological report showed the mother-of-one had an obsessive personality and the offence was not “sophisticated” fraud.
In sentencing, Judge Helen Bowskill said she would consider the fact Smith was not able to repay the money when deciding the harshness of the sentence.
Ms Bowskill said she had “some degree” of scepticism the remainder of the money could not be accounted for.
“You didn’t take for a need … you describe it as effectively wasting the money,” she said.
“It doesn’t make sense where it has gone. It is incomprehensible that level of money has been frittered away.”