STATE OF TASMANIA v MATTHEW PAUL DODGE 4 MAY 2020
COMMENTS ON PASSING SENTENCE BLOW CJ
Matthew Paul Dodge, you have pleaded guilty to 19 charges of crimes of dishonesty. They all relate to money that you misappropriated when you were working as a sales assistant in a retail furniture business. These crimes were committed over a period of about 11 months, from 30 September 2016 to 13 August 2017. On 10 occasions you committed a crime called “computer related fraud” by electronically transferring money to your own bank account from the proceeds of EFTPOS payments made by customers. On eight occasions you stole cash that you had received from customers. Apart from the 10 charges of computer related fraud and eight charges of stealing, there is a charge of inserting false information as data. That charge relates to a transaction when a customer paid $599 in cash for a buffet. You stole $499 of that money, and entered false data showing that the customer had made a $100 lay-by payment. Although there were 19 charges, they relate to only 16 transactions. There were three transactions that are each the subject of two charges.
The total amount that you misappropriated was $9,639, but some of that money was used to reimburse earlier misappropriations. The net benefit to you was $8,481. Most of the burden of your crimes fell on your employer, but there was one exception. On one occasion when you had stolen $2,320 in cash, you concocted a story about the money having been inadvertently burned after you took it home for safekeeping, your employer made an insurance claim, and it was the insurance company that ended up out of pocket.
Your offending came to light when a customer attempted to pay off the balance of $150 owing on a lay-by. Your employer’s computer system showed that $750 was owing. The customer produced a handwritten receipt that she had received from you for a $600 cash payment that you had stolen. You resigned from your job soon after that.
You were 30 years old when these crimes were committed and are now 33. You have no prior convictions, except for an insignificant speeding conviction some 15 years ago. It counts in your favour that you pleaded guilty, and saved the State the cost and inconvenience of a trial. However that is not as significant a mitigating factor as it might have been. When police officers interviewed you about these matters in March 2018 you told them several lies, and it took some time for them to complete further investigations and debunk the things you had told them. If you had co-operated with them, or even told them nothing, you would deserve a more lenient sentence.
I am taking into account the fact that you were going through a difficult time in 2016 and 2017. You had separated from a partner of 12 years, the mother of your two children. You were suffering from depression. You obtained treatment for depression, but initially the medication made things worse. You took up online gambling, got into financial difficulties, and started misappropriating money to pay bills and to fund your gambling. It is clear that you now regret what you did. You understand that your offending has resulted in you having to leave your job, and in your financial and mental health problems getting worse. To your credit, you have stopped gambling, found another job, and resumed living a stable life. You are working as an assistant manager at a service station, and are highly regarded by the management, even though they know of your offending.
A probation officer has reported that you are considered suitable for a home detention order. If you had not been considered suitable, I would have sent you to prison. You breached the trust that your employer placed in you. At one stage you were in a supervisory position, and that makes matters worse. Your offending continued for nearly a year and did not stop until you got caught. Your crimes were serious enough for imprisonment to be an option, even though you were a first offender.
I convict you and make a home detention order for an operational period of six months. The full contents of the order will be set out in a document that will provided to you. They include conditions, all of which apply for those six months, as follows:
- You must not commit an offence punishable by imprisonment.
- You must reside at [address].
- You must be there at all times, except when you are not there for a “relevant reason” specified in s 42AB(4) of the Sentencing Act 1997. That includes going somewhere with your probation officer’s permission.
- You must permit a police officer, probation officer or prescribed officer to enter those premises.
- You must permit a police officer to conduct a search of the premises, conduct a frisk search of you, and take a sample of any substance found on the premises or on your person.
- You must submit to electronic monitoring, which may include wearing or carrying an electronic device.
- Immediately after leaving Court today, you must attend the office of Community Corrections at Glenorchy for induction arrangements relating to this order.
- During the operational period of the order, you must maintain in operating condition an active mobile phone service, provide the contact details to Community Corrections, and be accessible for contact through that device at all times.
- You must not consume alcohol.
- If directed to do so by a police officer, probation officer or prescribed officer, you must submit to a breath test, urine test, or other test for the presence of an illicit drug or for the presence of alcohol.
- You must submit to the supervision of a Community Corrections officer as required by that officer.
I order you to pay $6,161 to the proprietor of the business named Affordable Furniture as compensation for its loss, and $2,320 to Allianz Australia Insurance Ltd as compensation for its loss.