custody, then six months by way of periodic detention and the balance suspended on entering a good behaviour for a period of four years.
Narayan
Between November 2008 and February 2012, Adi Narayan stole $987.005.08 while employed as a financial controller at a project and construction management company. One of his roles as a financial controller was to manage payments to the company’s creditors. Using nine different bank accounts, Narayan credited these accounts for work allegedly done, using bogus invoices. On some occasions, Narayan used legitimate invoices by inflating the amount to be paid and authorising the extra to be credited to one of the bank accounts he controlled. Because Narayan had sole control of the company’s financial systems, he was able to avoid detection for several years. The offences were detected when he was on leave and a temporary financial controller found suspicious transactions.
Narayan pleaded guilty and was sentenced in the Supreme Court to five years imprisonment, to be served by way of two years full time custody, then 18 months by way of periodic detention and the balance suspended on entering a good behaviour bond for 18 months.
Close
In 1989, Pamela Close commenced employment with ACTTAB Limited, a Territory owned corporation. In 1991 she was appointed as a Raceday Control Operator, and in 2003 she was promoted to the position of Manager, Raceday Control Centre at ACTTAB’s head office. As Control Operator and Manager, she was authorised to re-open betting after a race had been run. This authorisation was given in the very rare event that a race had to be re-run.
Between 2001 and 2010, Close misused her authorisation to re-open betting on 590 occasions immediately after the result of a race was known. She would then place “winning” bets using one of three phone betting accounts that she had opened in other peoples’ names, and re-close the betting. By so doing, Close dishonestly obtained $1,428,355.20. The dividends she obtained on each of the 590 occasions came from a pool of punters’ money with the result that on each occasion the total amount in the pool was reduced. The offending behaviour was detected in 2010 when ACTTAB instigated a new computer protocol which limited the amount of time available to re-open and close the betting.
The offender was initially charged with 590 charges, one for each time she committed an offence. She initially pleaded not guilty. These charges were eventually rolled up into two charges to which she pleaded guilty. She was convicted and sentenced to a period of imprisonment for five years to be served by way of 12 months full-time imprisonment followed by 18 months periodic detention with the balance suspended on entering a good behaviour order.
Siddiq
Prosecutions under the Food Act 2001 for breaches of the Food Standards Code attract much community interest. Khawar Siddiq operated a restaurant in Dickson. An inspection by a public health officer of the restaurant premises revealed several failures to comply with the requirements of the Food Standards Code. The breaches related to cleanliness, food storage, cleaning and sanitising specific equipment, pests, and hand washing facilities.
The matter was originally heard in the Magistrate’s Court. The prosecution had sought to rely on separate charges for each breach of the Food Standards Code, however the Magistrate forced the prosecution to combine all the breaches in one charge. Siddiq pleaded guilty and the Magistrate| |
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| DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS ANNUAL REPORT 2012-2013 | ¦ 31 |
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