STATE OF TASMANIA v JARED ROY McCONNON 28 OCTOBER 2025
COMMENTS ON PASSING SENTENCE JAGO J
Jared Roy McConnon, you have pleaded guilty to seven counts of fraud and 12 counts of attempted fraud. The crimes were committed by you between 18 January 2020 and 8 November 2021, whilst you were in a relationship with your then partner, Mikayla Thurley.
Throughout the course of the relationship, you had access to the complainant’s Commonwealth Bank account and would regularly transfer money from her account to your own bank account. You also had access to the complainant’s personal information, and you used that personal information to apply for multiple loans during this period. The seven counts of fraud relate to occasions where the loan applications were approved, and you obtained funds. The 12 occasions of attempted fraud relate to occasions where you had made applications to lending institutions using the complainant’s personal information, but for whatever reason, the loans were not approved.
In summary, you applied or attempted to apply for the following loans:
- on 18 January 2020, a $600 loan, through Ferratum, which was approved;
- on 6 February 2020, a $600 loan, through Credit Corp Financial Services, which was also approved;
- a $10,000 loan through Money Me, which was declined;
- two $600 loans through Jacaranda Finance, both of which were declined;
- on 3 July 2020, a $4,500 loan through IPF Digital Australia, which was approved;
- on 8 July 2020, a $3,000 loan through Credit Corp Financial Services, which was declined;
- On 20 July 2020, a $500 loan through CashNGo, which was approved;
- On 25 July 2020, a $800 loan through Ferratum, which was declined;
- On 22 August 2020, a $500 loan through Ferratum, which was declined;
- On 10 September 2020, a $2,100 loan through Jacaranda Finance, which was declined;
- On 14 September 2020, a $2,100 loan through Swoosh Finance, which was approved;
- On 17 September 2020, a $1,500 loan through Ferratum, which was declined;
- On 19 October 2020, a $1,400 loan through Ferratum, which was declined;
- On 16 December 2020, a $2,000 loan through CashNGo, which was approved;
- On 20 December 2020, a $1,000 loan through Ferratum, which was approved;
- On 14 January 2021, a $15,000 loan though MyOzMoney, which was declined;
- On 31 March 2021, a $42,500 loan through Pepper Money, which was declined; and
- On 8 November 2021, a $500 loan through Ferratum, which was declined.
In total then, you received loan funds in the amount of $11,300. Additionally, you applied for a further $78,380 in loan monies, but those applications were declined. The money you did receive was spent by you on gambling. You did not pay any of the loan repayments and the various loan companies began charging the complainant’s Commonwealth Bank account with loan fees. The complainant became aware of the situation, advised her family, and her family then confronted you about your fraudulent behaviour. Thereafter, you voluntarily went to the Devonport Police Station. You participated in a record of interview in which you admitted your behaviour. You told police that you had suffered from a gambling addiction for most of your adult life, which had “got out of control” in February 2020. You told police that you had obtained the complainant’s bank account details and password and transferred funds from her account to yours. You also told police that you had used the details of her driver’s licence for identification purposes. You said you used the complainant’s personal information as the banks would not allow you to borrow funds.
Your behaviour has had a significant deleterious effect upon the complainant. She has been financially impacted. Her credit rating has also been adversely affected, and she has been very stressed and anxious as a consequence of your behaviour. I have received a victim impact statement from her. She describes how your dishonest behaviour has affected her, not only financially but also emotionally. She is now in a position of uncertainty in terms of whether she will ever be able to repair her credit rating to a point where she would be able to obtain finance to purchase a home. This distresses her considerably. Your Counsel submits on your behalf that limited weight should be placed on this consequence as there exists a means by which a person effected by fraudulent behaviour, such as this, can apply to have their credit rating restored. Whilst that may be so, it still places a considerable impost upon the complaint, and the outcome of any such application is not certain. In my view, the additional anxiety caused to the complainant because of the adverse impact upon her credit rating is an aggravating factor.
You are 30 years of age. You have relevant prior convictions. In 2019 you were convicted in the Magistrates Court of two counts of stealing and three counts of dishonestly acquiring a financial advantage. Criminal dishonesty, then, is not unknown to you, and it is concerning that the dishonesty associated with this matter, commenced about nine months after you were sentenced for your previous dishonest behaviour.
Following your deceit, the relationship with the complainant came to an end and you relocated to Shepparton in Victoria. You now work for a pump company. You have always had a strong work ethic and you have been able to hold down good positions of employment. I am told that you have undertaken four counselling sessions in respect to your gambling addiction and have not gambled since 2023. I have not received any material confirmatory of this, and I must say I am somewhat concerned, given the length of time over which this deceitful behaviour occurred, and the fact that your gambling addiction was so intense that you were prepared to breach the trust of a person with whom you were in a relationship in order to obtain funds, that four counselling sessions have really addressed the complexity of your addiction. I note you told police that gambling had been a difficulty for you for most of your adult life. I am of the view a risk of reoccurrence must exist and therefore specific deterrence remains an important sentencing consideration.
I note you pleaded guilty to these charges at an early point in time. That counts in your favour. I am told you want to accept responsibility for what you did and assist the complainant in the repayment of the outstanding loans. It seems two of the loans you obtained have been paid back in full, to a value of $1,100. Some of the other loans have been written off as bad debts. There remains, however, $16,362.88 outstanding on the existing loans. That amount is greater than the amount you fraudulently obtained because of the accrual of interest and overdue fees.
At present, despite the fact I am told you remain desirous of paying those loans off, no arrangements are in place for you to make regular payments. I am told you have endeavoured to make such arrangements but there have been complications because some of the original loan companies have now collapsed and have been taken over by other companies, and you do not have those details. Of course, that does not prevent you from providing the complainant with the funds to make the necessary payments. In my view, such complications really just serve to underline the very difficult position you have placed the complainant in.
I am told you have been helping the complainant with the payment of a personal loan which is in her name, but which was apparently obtained at your behest, and the monies associated with it were used by you. That loan has been reduced from $25,000 to $6,000, but if it was a loan obtained for your benefit in any event, it does not really weigh heavily in terms of it being reflective of an acceptance of responsibility for wrongdoing.
Given the main of these crimes occurred over four years ago now, and you have been in good employment since your relocation to Victoria, I am not of the view that you have prioritised rectifying the situation of financial stress that you created for the complainant. To that extent I assess your early pleas of guilty as reflective of a bowing to the inevitable, rather than a genuine expression of remorse.
Generally, the fact crimes of this nature are committed because of a gambling addiction, carries little weight in the sentencing exercise. It does not have any significant effect upon the importance of the principles of general and specific deterrence. There is nothing before me, nor was there any assertion in the plea in mitigation, to suggest that your gambling addiction in any way impaired your mental functioning or impaired your ability to exercise appropriate judgment, or to think clearly as to the wrongfulness of your conduct. In my view, therefore, there is nothing before me which warrants any amelioration of your moral culpability. General and personal deterrence, as I have noted, remain important sentencing objectives.
Your conduct involved a terrible breach of trust. It went on for a reasonably significant period, just shy of two years. Each time you submitted a loan application you must have appreciated the harm you were causing to the complainant. There was ample opportunity for you to reflect upon your behaviour and desist. This speaks either to the gravity of your addiction, or your disregard for the complainant’s situation, or both. The length of time over which this fraudulent behaviour occurred is a concerning feature. You persisted in trying to obtain loan funds despite many refusals. Whilst the amount of loan funds you ultimately obtained was only moderate, your intent was to obtain more, and you were willing to expose the complainant to a far greater debt. The breach of trust was significant in my assessment.
A sentence of imprisonment must be imposed. I have given considerable thought to whether it is appropriate to suspend that sentence in whole or in part. I am conscious that if I sentence in a manner that allows you to maintain your employment, there is a greater prospect that the complainant may receive some financial assistance from you in the repayment of the loans. That is not a factor that attracts great weight in my view, given the limited steps that you have taken over the last four years to rectify the financial impact you created for the complainant.
Given the breach of trust involved, the length of time over which this offending occurred, the harm caused to the complainant and the strong need for general deterrence, I have determined I will suspend some, but not all, of the period of imprisonment, I intend to impose.
I make the following orders. You are convicted of all matters to which you have pleaded guilty. I impose one sentence. You are sentenced to imprisonment for a period of nine months, the last six months of that sentence will be suspended on condition that you are not to commit another offence punishable by imprisonment for a period of two years. I make a compensation order in favour of Mikayla Jane Thurley in an amount to be assessed.