A WOMAN who stole nearly $50,000 from the NRMA’s Salamander Bay branch to fund her poker machine addiction has had four months shaved off her jail term.
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Maree Ann Preece, 48, of Corlette, appeared in Newcastle District Court on Monday to appeal the severity of the maximum 16-month jail term she received in Raymond Terrace Local Court in June.
Preece began working as the manager at the NRMA’s Salamander Bay branch in early 2016 and was tasked with depositing takings at the nearby National Australia Bank each day.
But on January 30 this year, Preece went off sick.
On February 22, an NRMA Hunter Valley representative called the franchisee to report a discrepancy in the banking for his branch.
A subsequent audit revealed that between January 4 and January 25 none of the cash deposits had been taken to the bank and a total of $49,305.05 was outstanding.
The franchisee then completed a physical audit of the records at the Salamander Bay branch and found there were 16 banking deposit slips missing.
When spoken to by police, Preece admitted she had stolen money for about 10 months and used it to gamble on poker machines.
She said she used the takings from subsequent days to pay back earlier thefts in a bid to balance the books but went off sick when the thefts became too large to cover up.
“She would effectively rob Peter to pay Paul,” Judge Ellis said on Monday.
Preece pleaded guilty in April to a charge of stealing property as a clerk or servant greater than $15,000 and was jailed for a maximum of 16 months, with a non-parole period of 10 months.
She was also ordered to repay the more than $49,000 she had stolen.
The court heard on Monday that, so far, only $4000 had been repaid.
“I accept there are circumstances in which a gambling addiction, which may or may not be a mental health issue, can reduce moral culpability,” Judge Ellis said.
“The difficulty I find in this case is that it seems fairly clear that she was well aware of the criminality of her conduct.
“She knew what her history was, she knew she had an issue with gambling, yet she took on a role which involved a significant amount of trust in terms of the money that she was dealing with.
“There is no suggestion that she was incapable, by reason of her gambling addiction, of appreciating that it was probably a fairly dangerous thing to do.”
Judge Ellis upheld the severity appeal, but didn’t alter the maximum jail term of 16 months.
Instead, he reduced the non-parole period from 10 months to six months, making Preece eligible for release on December 15 this year.
