Wendy Hope Jobson has been sentenced to eight years in jail, after being found guilty of theft. The former administrative manager had stolen $7.8 million from her former employer over the course of five years in order to fund her addiction to pokies. Her lawyers claimed that she was unaware of her actions, but failed to convince the court of their perspective.
Jobson had worked for hotel operator Koroneos Group for 16 years in administrative management. She used her professional resources to siphon money from the company for five years. On 1400 occasions, she had stolen relatively small amounts of money to fund her gambling addiction; by the time she was caught, she had stolen a total of $7.8 million.
Her defence tried to claim that she was suffering from multiple personality disorder and had no idea what she was doing when stealing from her employer. The legal team enlisted in the help of Psychiatrist Dr Sylvia Solinski, who stated that Jobson had at least 10 different personalities. When she references the crime that was committed, Dr Solinski stated: "I'm not sure who the ‘she' was that did that."
While the case was compelling, Supreme Court Justice Phillip Priest was not convinced. He did not believe that Jobson was unconscious of her actions, and stated that she should take responsibility for them. "Even if it be true that you ‘lost' yourself when gambling online, the fact remains that, even on your own version, you realised what you were doing, yet did nothing to stop it," he said.
"Your offending was extremely grave, and represents a gross breach of trust”. Jobson is now bankrupt, and her former employer is unlikely to ever recover the funds that were lost. The company’s insurance only covers $500 000, which barely covers a portion of what was stolen. Jobson sold her home for nearly $200 000 to try to repay the company, but there is still over $7 million outstanding.
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