The Court: County Court of Victoria
The Lawyer: Mike Brown
The Charges:
The Allegations:
The client was working for a company as a manager. It was a large company with a number of employees. The client was having huge difficulties at home and was suffering from depression. The client decided to improve his situation by writing fake invoices to his employer (company), from a company that he created.
The client wrote many invoices and was falsely paid over 3.4 million by the company. He did this continuously for two years. Unfortunately for the client, two or three years later, he fiddled with the petty cash, which triggered an investigation and ultimately an audit by the company. Consequently, the client was charged with four offences of Obtaining Property by Deception, which was 3.4 million dollars worth of fraud.
The case presented a considerable number of problems. These included:
- A breach of trust from an employer over a significant period, being 2 years.
- In circumstances where the client had purchased houses, cars, and had affairs utilising the ill-got gains (problematic as it was on a greed, not need basis).
At Court:
On the face of it, there was not a great deal that could be said. But when our solicitor uncovered the layers, it became apparent that there was a lot going on with the client that could be used in mitigation to reduce his sentence. The client’s partner suffered from severe postnatal depression during this period to the extent that she was unable to work. The client himself had been diagnosed with a personality disorder and depression.
As soon as our solicitor was engaged, he advised the client to regularly see a forensic psychiatrist and a psychologist to treat and assess the client’s level of depression. The offending seemed to be more about improving his partner’s situation to assist in lifting her out of depression, and also to assist the client to lift himself out of his own depression.
Our solicitor obtained the full medical history for the client’s partner, all 140 pages, and then received the client’s complete medical history, a further 70 pages. Critically, the records revealed a diagnosis of depression one year prior to the offending. Further, the medical records also stated the medication prescribed to our client.
This was important because depression prior to offending can lead to some moderation of general and specific deterrence as a sentencing principle. The forensic psychologist had already diagnosed the client as suffering from depression before the incident. Still, the medical records provided the evidence required to lead to a modification of the sentence likely to be imposed.
The next task regarding this case was to ascertain where all the money went. The client had assisted in liquidating 1.3 million dollars worth of assets he retained to reduce his debt. But the courts always like to know where all the money went. In this case, it was essential to demonstrate that no money was left. It is a crucial sentencing consideration that the Judge is not left wondering whether the client had set aside a couple of million dollars as a get-out-of-jail-free present after the sentence. If the Judge does form this conclusion, gaol time can be drastically impacted.
Following the forensic analysis of the money trail and the above materials, the following became clear:
- that the client’s partner was very mentally ill before the offending;
- that the client himself was suffering from a significant level of depression before offending;
- that the money was used to try to lighten the load of his partners’ suffering by improving her situation;
- to improve his situation;
- that the client had cooperated to liquidate all his assets when finally caught, a demonstration of remorse; and
- He had stopped offending prior to being caught, which also demonstrates a level of remorse.
The Outcome:
The above factors were very important sentencing considerations. When the matter went before the Judge on a guilty plea to the charges, significant submissions were made, including the tendering of a psychiatrist and psychologist report, medical records and character references. They resulted in the client receiving a sentence of 5 years imprisonment with a non-parole period of 3 years. This was a very lenient sentence for this level of deception.
