STATE OF TASMANIA v CINDY LEE GEORGE 6 DECEMBER 2022
COMMENTS ON PASSING SENTENCE GEASON J
Cindy Lee George, you have pleaded guilty to computer related fraud.
Your offending occurred whilst you were employed by Target Australia between 19 October 1998 and 27 February 2020.
You performed a number of duties in your employment including operating cash registers and performing refunds at Target’s Elizabeth Street store in Hobart.
You made a total of 177 fraudulent transactions totalling $24,302 between the dates identified in the complaint.
In the course of your employment you accessed Target’s point of sale computer system and once logged in you processed cash refunds by scanning items that had not been sold before placing those items back on the shelf.
You then processed a cash sale for Coles group and Myer gift cards or blank visa cards in the same dollar amount as you had just refunded to ensure that the system remained balanced.
173 of the transactions involved Coles Group and Myer gift cards and four involved prepaid visa gift cards. These ranged in value from $30 to $257.50 and then you kept the gift cards for your personal use.
On 9 February 2020 a Target employee observed a cash refund on the system prior to store opening time which raised her suspicions because there were no customers in the store at the time of the transaction.
She notified the store manager to report the suspicious transaction.
In turn the stores CCTV footage was reviewed and it showed you processing a cash refund and then immediately processing the sale of a gift card.
There was no customer present at the register at the time.
The store manager viewed your transaction history and identified a pattern of transactions dating back to February 2018 in which you would process a refund and a cash sale onto a gift card within the first 10 minutes of your rostered shifts.
An investigation followed and a number of similar transactions were identified. On 26 February 2020 you attended a meeting at Target with its investigating officer and you were told that a large number of cash refund transactions and gift card purchases had been undertaken by you simultaneously.
You participated in an interview and you were cooperative admitting to performing the fraudulent transactions.
Your employment was terminated and the information was provided to police.
You participated in an interview with police. You told them that you had been employed at Target for over 20 years and that you had participated in an interview with your employer during which you admitted the fraudulent transactions. You agreed that you had a unique operator number and password and that you had not shared that with anyone else.
You said that you had made these transactions to fund your online gambling problem which had commenced around 2018. You used your income from Target and the visa prepaid cards for online gambling credits and the Coles gift cards to purchase groceries and petrol.
You explained your method of performing the fraudulent transactions and you told police that you would deeply ashamed and upset with yourself.
When you first presented in the Hobart Magistrates Court you entered a plea of guilty to these charges.
You have repaid the full value of your fraudulent transactions to Target.
You are 69 years old and you present without prior conviction save for some minor traffic matters that are not relevant for sentencing purposes.
I have received a report from Dr O’Donnell. It indicates that you were suffering chronic anxiety and depression during the period of your offending and she describes a tendency in you to addictive type behaviours in order to cope with that anxiety and depression.
I note that the particular gambling activity in which you engaged did not result in you winning money but rather credit which enabled you to further participate in that gambling activity. As such you derived no direct profit from your crime though I do note that some of the proceeds of your offending was spent on groceries and fuel presumably to compensate for the fact that your income was being expended on this gambling habit.
This habit appears to have commenced through your participation in free online games to pass time at the end of the day but escalated to online poker machines which provided these winning credits.
Dr O’Donnell confirms the addictive nature of these games You were uncomfortable committing these crimes and that that is explained in your practice of getting these fraudulent transactions out of the way early in the day.
You have completed a number of sessions with psychologists in order to gain some insight into the way that the trauma involving the death of your father and then your mother, both from cancer had impacted you Those sessions are not continuing, the professional view of your treating psychologist being that you had derived all the benefit you can from those sessions.
You continue to participate in gamblers anonymous indicating that you have an insight into your offending and your gambling problem.
That insight, and indeed your remorse, is further evidenced by your having repaid the money to your employer by using some of your superannuation funds which your counsel has described as meagre.
I accept your counsels submission that you are unlikely to reoffend though I consider that is to some extent dependent upon your continuing to engage with gamblers anonymous but I do accept that the need for personal deterrence is reduced in your case.
It is the need for general deterrence that is the preeminent sentencing consideration, and it is for that reason that I obtained a report to have you assessed for your suitability for a home detention order. That is because I formed the view that in order to properly address general deterrence a term of imprisonment was an appropriate sentence. That assessment which has been provided to the Court indicates that your home, where you reside with your husband who I note is supportive of you, has been assessed as suitable for the purpose of your home detention order.
In the circumstances of your early plea of guilty I intend to reduce the sentence I would otherwise have imposed by 20% in recognition of the utilitarian benefit which accrues in consequence of that plea.
As I have said, I accept that you are remorseful.
In all the circumstances, it is my view, that a period of home detention of six months is an appropriate sentencing order.
For the period of that home detention order you will be subject to a number of conditions including that you reside at the nominated address during the period of the order and that you are to be there at all times unless approved by a probation officer to be absent from that address. Immediately upon your release from court today you must attend the Community Corrections Office at Highfield House for induction into this order. There are a number of additional conditions that will attach to the home detention order and these will be set out in the sentencing order.
Some of those include:
- You must during the operational period of the order maintain in operating condition an active mobile phone service, provide contact details to Community Corrections and be accessible for contact through this device at all times.
- You must submit to the supervision of a community corrections officer as required by that officer.
- You must during the operational period of the order not take any illicit or prohibited substances and you must not consume alcohol.
- There is a requirement that you wear a monitoring device and keep that in working order at all times. That is the means by which you are compliant to the order requiring you to be at the address monitored.
- You must not tamper with that device or allow anyone else to do so.