Nice little earner: How one Brisbane worker stole $330,000 from her boss and no one noticed for 13 years
An office manager stole more than $300,000 over a 13-year stretch through a scam centred on bogus ticket refunds for Brisbane trains.
Tanya Denise Haddon, 54, is a former employee of Airtrain Citylink Limited, the company that operates trains from Brisbane Airport.
She devised a process to make it appear that customers were getting refunds, but their tickets were never cancelled, the Brisbane District Court was told on Monday.
Haddon also used her employer’s PayPal account to purchase items online and post them to her home address, including beauty products, books and clothing, crown prosecutor James Bishop said.
The offending began in mid 2006 and didn’t end until 2020 when the bank noticed some unusual activity, totalling about $2000.
Haddon resigned and offered to pay the money back.
“To the best of your knowledge, you said there were no other transactions,” Judge Orazio Rinaudo said during Monday’s sentencing.
“Clearly there were.”
Haddon stole a total of $330,000 from her employer, with the cash used to service debt accrued from airfares, overseas trips, clothing and restaurants, the court was told.
None of the money has been paid back, and Haddon doesn’t have the means to do so.
“Plainly, your conduct was a significant breach of trust … it carried on over a lengthy period of time,” Judge Rinaudo said.
She pleaded guilty to five counts of fraud and was sentenced to five years in prison, with the term to be suspended after serving about 20 months.
