Woman jailed for $23,500 thefts from employer
File image. © Andrew Bardwell
Three-time thief Lynley Maria Dobson has been jailed for 18 months for stealing $23,500 from another employer.
Dobson, 41, was jailed for three years for stealing $149,000 in 2004 and has repaid none of the money.
She received a home detention term for stealing $10,000 in 2013, and has repaid all that money.
Christchurch District Court Judge Alistair Garland decided she would not be able to repay any of the money from her latest theft from a retail chain store, because she is now a declared bankrupt.
He noted that she was still under her home detention sentence when she carried out those thefts.
Over two years, she took $23,500 by logging on to the store’s computer system and creating refunds which she then paid into her own bank account. The did that 137 times.
“This is the third time you have been before the courts for serious dishonesty offending,” Judge Garland told her. “Home detention this time would be an inadequate response.”
Defence counsel Vicki Walsh had urged that home detention be granted to a woman who had now been diagnosed with depression and anxiety. The offending arose from her lack of self-worth.
Mrs Walsh explained: “One of the catalysts for the offending is that she used the funds for gratification but also as a way of avoiding having to use her husband’s money, so he would not leave her and he would be happy.”
She said Dobson had known that a stocktake would eventually find the offending, but it was discovered sooner than that. “She knew she was going to be caught out, and it came as a relief in the end.”
She said Dobson offered $1000 immediately towards reparations and would repay the rest over time, but the offer was declined by the judge.
Dobson had pleaded guilty to the charge of theft by an employee.
Category: Focus
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