By Cam Lucadou-Wells
A now-51-year-old financial group credit controller who stole $200,000 from her Springvale employer a decade ago has been given a suspended sentence.
Despite being on an $88,000 annual salary, Joanne Peters stole on 60 occasions in 12 months while running accounts at heating and air-con firm Coldflow.
Peters’ “regular and systematic” stealing spree started one month into her job at the Australian family-owned firm in mid-2011.
She stole customers’ cash payments, fiddled accounts and misused a customer’s credit card – deceit that required “significant planning and organisation”, Victorian County Court judge Wendy Wilmoth said on 23 February.
In August 2012, Coldflow’s CFO became suspicious about the discrepancies and moved Peters to another role.
Peters didn’t admit to her thefts until confronted again in December 2012.
At the time, she told Coldflow she used the money to help others, to pay back a loan from her parents and to pay for her mother’s back surgery.
Peters paid back about $62,360 over the following six months. Judge Wilmoth said Peters was making arrangements to repay the remaining amount.
Over several years a Victoria Police detective and forensic accountant discovered $200,000 was missing.
They found about $87,000 deposited into accounts held by her, her husband, her parents and her son.
During the 12-month period, $47,840 was withdrawn from her accounts at gaming venues, $33,000 from ATMs and $28,000 in cash withdrawals from her or her husband’s credit cards.
Judge Wilmoth noted that Peters’ motives may have included paying for her and her husband’s gambling.
Coldflow was repaid the stolen funds by its insurer – after paying $10,000 excess.
The firm incurred legal costs and other expenses in trying to recover its losses, Judge Wilmoth said.
Coldflow’s CFO had described the period as “very difficult”, the judge said.
A friend worked overtime and weekends for two years to reconstruct the accounts. She felt “sick to the bone” by Peters’ betrayal of trust.
A psychologist reported that Peters’ untreated depressive and mood disorder may have clouded her thinking during her stealing.
Judge Wilmoth said the “inordinately long” legal delays were a strong mitigating factor that added stress and anxiety.
Six years after her crimes were discovered, Peters was interviewed by police in October 2018. Charges followed in April 2020.
The married mother of two had worked at ANZ bank for 15 years and now in administration without financial responsibilities. She had no prior or subsequent convictions.
Peters was handed a three-year jail term, wholly suspended for three years.
Suspended sentences – phased out by State Parliament in 2014 – are still available for offences committed 10 years ago.
