A mum of four from Tasmania who defrauded her council job to buy more than $130,000 of home improvement products, mostly from Bunnings, will serve 18 months home detention.
Casey Maree Bryant, 40, from Bothwell, 75kms north of Hobart, was handed her sentence on Friday.
In total, Ms Bryant pleaded guilty to more than 200 charges including 60 counts of fraud and 116 counts of inserting false information as data.
Her husband Jamie Glen Bryant, 42, pleaded guilty to six counts of fraud in relation to presenting fraudulent purchase orders not just Bunnings but also Beaurepaires and Harvey Norman among others.
He was sentenced to six months imprisonment, suspended for 18 months.
The fraud involved Ms Bryant organising it so her employer Central Highlands Council would pay for goods from retailers that were for her family’s use.
Justice Stephen Estcourt said the $130,000 fraud occurred over a protracted period and was both “planned” and “calculated”.
“Ms Bryant’s offending only coming to an end when the discrepancy in the Bunnings account was detected.”
He said the Bryants had taken funds away from the small council which services an area with just 2200 residents.
A factor in not sending Ms Bryant to jail was her four children under 10, including two newborns.
“If she was incarcerated the newly born twins would suffer as a consequence,” reported the ABC.
The court heard that during her time as an administrative officer she set up a Bunnings account in the name of council.
She would order items such as barbecue tools, a lawnmower and even a water feature valued at nearly $1000.
Ms Bryant would collect the items, pay for them with council funds and then input their details into council’s IT systems declaring they were for council’s use.
Items were also purchased through other retailers, including Battery World and Brierley Hose and Handling, but Bunnings was the favourite.
The fraud came to light when a Bunnings’ staff member at a store in Hobart’s north alerted council to two of the purchases which then led to an investigation.
It was said that the offences took place for eight years – between 2012 and 2020.
At the time, the Bryants had large financial outgoings due to a mortgage, car loans and IVF costs.
As well as electronic monitoring of her home detention, Ms Bryant will have to do 210 hours of community service, pay $5811 to Central Highlands Council and $127,188 to an insurer.
Mr Bryant will have to pay $4894 to council to recoup its costs.