Worker’s appeal on $27k fraud

Court halves city man’s sentence

A TOOWOOMBA man who was convicted for defrauding his employer of $27,000 has been successful in appealing the severity of his sentence in the state’s second highest court.

According to a District Court judgment handed down last week, Rodney Thomas Sim had his actual time in jail to be served before his two-year sentence was suspended slashed from six months to three by Judge Brad Farr.

The court heard Sim pleaded guilty to fraud by an employee in the Toowoomba Magistrates Court earlier this year after depositing $27,000 into his own account while working for Dysart-based company Impact Concrete Australia in 2013.

Sim, it was submitted, had used $16,000 of that figure to purchase a car for himself after receiving the money under the assumption it was for work on a project he was managing.

Those actions came after a verbal agreement between him and a business partner were not fulfilled.

Seven months after he deposited those funds, a complaint was made to police.

His lawyers successfully argued the sentence was excessive and that the magistrate had made a factual error during the sentencing.

The factual error was in regards to the sentencing magistrate misunderstanding whether the victim had bought Sim a car for work during their remarks.

Describing Sim’s actions as a “one-off opportunistic offence” Judge Farr allowed the appeal, but said given the breach of trust jail was necessary.

Judge Farr ordered Sim instead serve three months in jail, instead of six, of his twoyear sentence.