A grandma has been jailed after admitting to robbing a company of $4million to fund luxury cruise trips and a gambling addiction.
Maree Wilson, 68, was sentenced to at least three years behind bars at the County Court of Victoria on Friday after pleading guilty to a series of theft charges.
She diverted funds from family-run business Stosius Constructions to her own bank accounts between 2014 to 2021 while employed as their bookkeeper.
The court heard the fraudster spent at least $500 a day to feed her pokie addiction while also blowing money on a number of overseas holidays and shopping sprees.
Her splurge came to an end after her transactions were red-flagged in November 2021 and she admitted to the fraud to the company’s director and his son.
Melbourne grandma, Maree Wilson (pictured), has plead guilty to defrauding over $4million from a family-run construction company while employed as their bookkeeper
Wilson told the owners that she was ‘glad it’s done’ and would wait patiently for police to arrive at the head office.
She said the racket began as a way to feed her gambling addiction before it grew into an ‘indefensible’ multi-million dollar fraud.
The court heard Wilson had at times given some of the money to her children or charity while spending at least $50,000 gambling on a number of overseas cruises.
During an interview with police in October 2022, she said she ‘enjoyed (my) time and enjoyed what was happening’.
‘Yes of course (I knew what I was doing) … I didn’t think about it … I didn’t give it conscious thought … I can’t explain that to someone else,’ Wilson said.
The court was told that Wilson had intended to tell the company directors on a number of occasions but ‘chickened out’, the Herald Sun reported.
When in the owner’s office, she would instead place the blame on him, saying ‘he should be taking more responsibility for the finances than he was’.
While the fraudster has foregone her $15,000 severance payment, the court also heard she hasn’t made an effort to pay back the company.
She spent at least $50,000 gambling on a number of overseas cruises while also burning at least $500 a day on the pokies
Wilson had worked at the company for 14 years before starting the racket which left the lives of the owner’s family almost ruined.
Stosius Constructions’ former director believed the company’s losses were due to his poor management and didn’t suspect the trusted employee being a fraudster.
Her ‘greedy and heinous’ offences left the company on the brink of collapse and led to severed relationships between family members, victims told the court.
Judge Gabriele Cannon said Wilson was able to get away with stealing millions because of her ‘position of trust which you gravely breached’.
‘You were a long-term and trusted employee of the victim company who you knew to be a family company and who you deliberately stole from time and time again,’ Judge Cannon said.
