by Cam Lucadou-Wells
A book-keeper who has swindled nearly $1 million from employers has been jailed again.
Robyn Lunney, 48, pleaded guilty at the Victorian County Court to theft and deception charges relating to misappropriating more than $125,000 from Keysborough electrical and data business Norm Phillips and Staff.
She was employed as the firm’s full-time office manager and book-keeper between July 2023 and January this year.
During that time, she transferred more than $122,000 from the business into her personal bank accounts.
She attempted to cover them up by misdirecting payments through the MYOB accounting system and the business’s credit card.
Lunney also bought online a laptop, furniture and made a personal finance payment using the victim’s credit card.
At the time, Lunney was on bail for previous dishonesty offences.
When her frauds were discovered, she told Dandenong police that she didn’t know why she offended.
She spent the money on “general spending” and gambling, she told police. She later claimed to use the funds on gambling and cocaine.
The family business’s general manager stated to the court that the lost funds had a significant impact.
Considerable work and expense were also spent correcting Lunney’s ‘errors’ in the MYOB accounting system.
Lunney’s defence lawyer listed stressors on Lunney at the time, including funding her legal representation in another criminal case.
On 21 August, sentencing judge Fran Dalziel stated while Lunney took steps to hide her deceptions, they were “inevitably going to be discovered”.
“You described your own offending as impulsive and short-term thinking.
“I have some difficulties with that characterisation, given the number of transactions and steps involved.”
Raised in Berwick, the “recidivist fraudster” had been previously convicted for cheating three other businesses since 2005 – a total of more than $860,000.
This included misappropriating more than $560,000 from a Dandenong South family-business Cut Price Kitchens in 2016-‘20.
In April, she was jailed for this offending for up to five years and nine months, with the judge noting Lunney’s “self-indulgent greed” in funding “friviolous extravagances for yourself”.
A psychologist diagnosed Lunney with generalized anxiety disorder with panic attacks. But they weren’t causally related to her offending.
Judge Dalziel accepted that Lunney, who pleaded guilty at an early stage, regretted her actions.
“On the other hand, such expressions of remorse were not linked in (the) past to rehabilitation.
“I find your prospects of rehabilitation are guarded, at best.”
Lunney was jailed for two years and three months, with one year running concurrently with her recent prison sentence.
Combining the two terms, she was imprisoned for up to seven years. She will be eligible for parole in four-and-a-half years.
