Ripped off by worker I trusted
Office manager pocketed money earmarked for bills, salary sacrifices
“SHE outsmarted all of us.”
Panelbeater Gerry Hill was one day away from his semiretirement when a solicitor’s word of warning prompted him to make a few calls about office manager Monique James.
“He said ‘Gerry, something doesn’t look right’,” Mr Hill said.
To Mr Hill’s horror, James had fleeced his business of $126,000 and even had him believing she would buy his business – Trinity Smash Repairs.
It was a final read through of the sales papers that piqued the lawyer’s concern.
Over eight months of employment, James had convinced Mr Hill she had his best interests at heart, diverting all the business’ phone calls and emails to her phone. He was totally unaware she had pocketed money meant for creditors and whenever they would call to collect a debt she gave them the run-around.
“She would send a remittance to convince people that the money was in their account,” Mr Hill said.
When he called his suppliers, the truth dawned on him.
“They said ‘Gerry, every time we called Monique would answer – she said you were away,” Mr Hill said.
“The whole time, she was robbing the guts out of me.
“I’m 68, I need this like a hole in the head.”
James, 33, was convicted of multiple counts of fraud in Brisbane District Court earlier this month.
She pleaded guilty to 15 counts of stealing and falsifying records and fraud.
Over six years from 2012 she embezzled $200,000 in a variety of schemes that stretched south to Bundaberg.
Mr Hill and James’ numerous other Far Northern victims were able to watch the proceedings via video link in a Cairns court.
“One of the other victims said it was the cleverest fraud that she had ever seen; she was cunning,” Mr Hill said.
James – who has spent 12 months of a five-year sentence in custody, has been released on parole.
Trinity Smash foreman Luke Mills said James should have been locked away for 20 years.
“She organised salary sacrifices for all the boys and it was never getting paid,” Mr Mills, 26, said. “She was the best con artist I have ever heard of.”
James even forged REIQ papers for a $1 million house for which she paid a $10,000 deposit and convinced her parents she owned the property.
Judge Vicki Lowry called James “devious and dishonest … who would stoop so low as to deceive your own mother.”