A Cronulla woman will spend at least three years behind bars after being convicted of defrauding the operators of the Kurnell desalination plant of more than $1 million.
Stella Wyllie, 56, was charged with dishonestly obtaining financial advantage by deception and obtaining money by deception by more than $15,000.
She pled guilty earlier this year and was sentenced by Magistrate Glenn Bartley on Friday in Sutherland Local Court.
For the first charge she was sentenced to two years jail to begin from that day.
On the second charge she was sentenced to a further two years with a non-parole period of 18 months.
Both sentences are to be served consecutively.
That would mean she would not be released on supervised parole until March 14, 2021.
A statement from Veolia Australia and New Zealand said they have stringent recruitment protocols.
‘’We trust our employees and as an employer, it is our responsibility to ensure the environment that we provide to our people remains both safe and welcoming,’’ it read.
‘’We also confirm that we are continuously optimising our financial systems to ensure we remain in full compliance with current industry control standards.’’
The company thanked Miranda police for their support throughout the court case.
Wyllie worked at the Kurnell site from January 2009 as an administrator for Veolia Water Operations and was responsible for paying contractor invoices.
A statement of police facts tendered to the court said that Veolia discovered discrepancies with the invoices in October 2016 after three contractors alleged the company had not paid them.
Police said she sent an email to her supervisor requesting the account details of the three contractors be changed to two National Bank of Australia accounts and one Westpac account which were all held in her name.
That request was approved and when the invoices were approved they went into her accounts.
The first transaction was made in February 2015 and the last in October 2016. She was then stood down.
There were 70 electronic transfers in total equaling $1,096,546.
After some of the contractors complained she paid some of the invoices from her personal account. Those payments totalled $472,586.
Police said she benefitted by more than $622,959.