A senior accounts manager at Adelaide Brighton Cement who deceived her employer out of $12 million to benefit a customer had falsified documents at a previous employer, a court has heard.
Glenda Ivy Burgess, 63, has been sentenced to seven years' jail for multiple counts of aggravated deception and dishonestly dealing with documents over a period of eight years when she was the head of the largest accounts team at Adelaide Brighton Cement.
Burgess made false entries allowing a customer — Concrete Supply — to only pay $20 million for $32 million worth of cement between 2009 and 2017.
She also hid Concrete Supply's debts from her own employer, increased their credit limits without authorisation and had created several large manual entries benefiting Concrete Supply.
Concrete Supply was not complicit in the crimes.
During sentencing, Judge Adam Kimber said Burgess' conduct was "considered and calculated" and he believed she had committed several uncharged acts of deception as well.
"You knew that you were acting dishonestly," he said.
"By July 2013, you had stopped sending invoices to Concrete Supply altogether.
"I have no doubt that your conduct would have continued had your employer not discovered anomalies in the ledger in about September 2017, and then conducted an investigation."
But Judge Kimber said he could not find any motive or personal benefit Burgess received.
"I have no doubt that you knew that the sum was many millions of dollars," he said.
"That the benefit to you is unclear does not diminish the calculated and protracted nature of your dishonesty while in a position of trust.
Judge Kimber said Adelaide Brighton Cement had lost several long-term customers with Burgess' offending at least partly to blame.
He said Burgess had shown no remorse or contrition and that he was limited on the leniency he could extend to Burgess as she had previously been convicted for falsifying accounts and stealing from a former employer in 1986.
Despite losing that job, Burgess managed to return to work involving billing and financial control within a couple of years.
She was employed with Adelaide Brighton Cement in 2000.
'Crushing blow' to go to prison at 63
"While it might be inherently unlikely that you would ever again have a role like you had, I cannot say that you would never work again nor that you would have some other opportunity to deceive others who deal with money," Judge Kimber said.
"This was deception and dishonestly on a substantial scale.
"It involves a very high level of moral blame worthiness."
Judge Kimber sentenced Burgess to seven years in prison with a non-parole period of four years and three months.
"It must be a crushing blow to be sent to prison at 63 years of age, including of course, the separation from your husband to who you are devoted," Judge Kimber said.
"And also, your past offending."
