Trusted long-term film company employee jailed for stealing $1m

An employee of an Emmy award-winning Queensland production company who used her position of trust to siphon almost a million dollars from the business over seven years has been jailed.

Natalie Hammond, a 71year-old with no criminal history, was sentenced to eight years’ imprisonment on Tuesday after pleading guilty to two counts of aggravated fraud.

The Brisbane District Court heard Hammond was the financial controller of successful film company Hoodlum Active Pty Ltd where she had worked for almost two decades when her deceit was uncovered in 2020.

According to its website, Hoodlum is an Emmy and BAFTA award-winning production company that has worked on projects starring actors including Russell Crowe and Liam Hemsworth.

Among the titles it has been affiliated with include Tidelands starring Elsa Pataky, Harrow starring Ioan Gruffudd and Netflix film A Perfect Pairing starring Victoria Justice and Adam Demos which was filmed at locations in South East Queensland and the Gold Coast Hinterland.

Crown Prosecutor Zachary Kaplan said Hammond’s offending spanned seven years from 2013 to 2020 when she was aged between 61 and 68.

The court heard Hammond was “not a one trick pony”, and had defrauded the company in a variety of ways including taking $470,000 from project accounts on 290 occasions and transferring $132,000 to her credit card across 62 occasions.

She also created and paid false invoices to herself, took $274,000 of salary increases she was not entitled to, and cashed 120 bank cheques totalling more than $100,000.

Her betrayal was uncovered when the company directors hired a forensic accountant to investigate the discrepancies between the net profits of the business and its bank accounts.

Judge Katherine McGinness said Hammond made some admissions she had used the money to pay for her drug addicted son’s drug purchases but also admitted to using the money to pay for food, clothing, jewellery and massages.

Judge McGinness took into account victim impact statements provided by the company’s founders who said the offending had long-term devastating impacts on them and their business.

Hammond was sentenced to eight years’ jail with parole eligibility in November 2025 after 20 months in custody.