Prison officer in $24k swindle

A FORMER Risdon Prison employee – a traumatised Gulf War veteran who was also brutally bashed by an inmate – will spend 10 months under home detention for fraudulently claiming more than $24,000 in overtime payments.

Paul John McGuire, 51, faced the Hobart Magistrates Court on Thursday after pleading guilty to 26 counts of fraud committed over six months in 2019, racking up a sum he has since repaid.

Magistrate Robert Webster heard McGuire was employed as a correctional officer but seconded to the rostering office at the time of his crimes.

He fraudulently entered overtime claims in the prison’s rostering system, but it soon came to the attention of supervisors that he had not been seen by other employees working at the Ron Barwick Minimum Security facility.

An internal investigation was conducted, which included analysis of the prison’s biometrics security system and CCTV footage and showed McGuire had been absent from the complex on each of the 26 occasions.

Defence lawyer Henry Pill said the Lutana resident’s crimes were “brought on by desperation”, amid serious concerns about his wife’s health and growing medical debts, plus his own mental health struggles.

He said McGuire, who worked with the Tasmania Prison Service for nearly 21 years before losing his job over the offending, was deployed to Iraq during the first Gulf War and exposed to life-threatening situations.

Mr Pill said McGuire was traumatised again while working at the prison.

“He was exposed to many occasions of assaults … including one assault that left him with broken ribs and incapacitated for work,” he said.

Mr Pill said the prison, especially during McGuire’s early period of employment, had a “stoic” workplace culture where people didn’t talk about their concerns or receive workplace counselling.

Mr Pill said when prison management approached McGuire about the offending, he made full admissions and wrote a letter of apology.

Mr Webster imposed a 10month home detention order, a $500 victims of crime levy, and $85.86 in court costs.