A 53 year old Canberra woman has stolen almost $235,000 dollars over a three year period from her employer to fund her poker machine addiction, an ACT court heard yesterday. Joanne Whitford-Smith was the bookkeeper and accounts manager for a family owned Fyshwick title company, R. West Titles in Australia between 2001 and 2005.
After she had gained the trust of her employee and was given complete control of the businesses finances, she stole $234,989 dollars between 2002 and July of 2005. She stole the money through fraudulent checks and unauthorized electronic fund transfers she made to her account.
Her thefts have pushed the business to brink of bankruptcy and the owner Roy West, who started the company almost 50 years ago said that he has put the Gladstone Street biding up for sale in an effort to save the business, according to a report in the Canberra Times.
Mr. West has said that figure given is only a fraction of what they believe she took from the company. Their was a 12 month police investigation into the thefts and it couldn’t account for all of the missing money. “We were turning over a lot of work, but nobody, no matter how big you are, can take losses that big,” he said.
“In the last four weeks she worked with us she stole $27,500 through electronic fund transfers. I’m 74, nearly 75, and broke as a bastard.”
She made an appearance in the ACT Supreme Court yesterday for sentencing proceeding after she plead guilty to five theft charges that encompassed the 115 fraudulent transactions. She has been in police custody since she was arrested in February and has no prior criminal record.
At court they heard that Whitford-Smith moved to Canberra in 2000 and started working at R. West Titles in October of 2001 as their bookkeeper and office manager. She was responsible for the monthly reconciliation of the company’s bank statements, and the payment of invoices and wages.
Then in the beginning of 2002 she was added as a signatory to the Australian company’s bank account. This allowed her to sign company checks without the need of a second signature and was also given the authority to establish an electronic banking account.
A few years later in September of 2005 she resigned and when another accountant took over the company’s book she discovered that there were several suspicious transactions. The police were called in and they found that between October of 2002 and October of 2004 that Whitford-Smith had written 58 checks to herself that totals $124,866 dollars.
They also noted that on the check stubs it said that the payments were to one of the company’s creditors. Starting in May of 2003 and occurring until April of 2004 she bought almost $10,000 in alcohol from a wine retailer with the company’s money. From January to July of 2005 she made she made 46 unauthorized electronic transfers to her accounts totalling $87,424 dollars.
Whitford-Smith has told her probation and parole officer that she had started stealing from the company to fund her poker addiction. She said that it had began shortly after she moved to Canberra. She told the officer that she felt shame for what she has done and sentencing was adjourned until September 5th.
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