ACCOUNTANT SWINDLED £1MILLION TO FEED SLOT MACHINE ADDICTION
Expat faces deportation after siphoning cash
A SCOTS mum has been jailed for eight years in Australia for stealing £1million from her bosses to fund a gambling addiction.
Accountant Sandra Balfour, 67, siphoned off cash while working for a car dealer in Brisbane to spend on poker machines.
The UK citizen is expected to be deported back to Scotland after her release.
Balfour told how gambling provided her with an “escape” from the strain of caring for her sick husband before his death.
She pled guilty to fraud, having transferred funds from Brisbane Motor Auctions and Platinum Vehicle Sales to her personal bank account between 2010 and 2018.
A court heard Balfour had been a “trusted employee” with access to the company’s accounts and payment system.
Balfour dodged detection by using another employee’s login to generate payments but entered her own details to authorise them.
She disguised the transfers – totalling 1.89million Australian dollars – by labelling them with generic terms to avoid raising a “red flag”. Crown prosecutor Eddie Coker said: “This is a very serious case but also at the same time, quite a simple one. It’s money being transferred from the company’s account to her account.” The court heard the scam was uncovered when a customer complained about not receiving an insurance product they purchased. The firm found the same amount had been transferred to Balfour.
Defence lawyer Matthew Hynes said the “underlying reason” she took the cash was to support a gambling habit.
He added: “(The money) went straight into pokies (slot machines).
“This isn’t the case of someone leading a greedy, lavish lifestyle – it is feeding an addiction.”
Balfour, who left Scotland in 1982, received a suspended three-year jail term for a similar offence in 1993. She overpaid herself £17,000 in cheques from a previous employer.
Mr Hynes said that money was used to pay her mortgage when her husband lost his job and the missing sum was repaid.
Balfour’s husband fell ill in 2010 suffering from clogged arteries and was unable to work. The court heard he later drank to excess and suffered depression.
Balfour worked to support him and their son. In a letter of apology to the judge, Balfour said she turned to gambling as “an escape” and a coping mechanism.
In 2018 her husband made her pledge not to touch a poker machine again, the court was told, and that promise was kept.
He husband died last year after sufffering from cancer.
Civil action is ongoing against Balfour and the court was told she had offered to return around half the money stolen to the car dealership.
This isn’t a case of greed or a lavish lifestyle.. it’s feeding addiction
With her son looking on, Balfour wiped away tears as she was sentenced to eight years with parole eligibility set for April 2024.
Judge Paul Smith told the Supreme Court in Brisbane that when fixing sentence, he was factoring in the “hardship” Balfour faced following her jail term. Balfour is expected to have her visa cancelled and be deported following her release. The judge told Balfour her crime was “not overly sophisticated”, but “a significant breach of trust”.