A former ATM technician has admitted taking more than $244,000 from a Queanbeyan cash machine in the midst of a $775,000 stealing spree that has already seen him locked up in the ACT.
Salesi Latu Toumo'ua now faces the prospect of another stint behind bars, having previously been sentenced to six years in jail with a three-year non-parole period for his Canberra offences.
Toumo'ua, of Wright in the ACT, had been the second-in-charge at G&A Security Services for less than a month when he committed crimes that would ultimately result in the company's collapse.
Then aged 27, he selfishly took advantage of his boss having to deal with a family emergency in May 2013, knocking off early one night and later returning to the company's Weston office in disguise.
With his face hidden under a motorcycle helmet, he grabbed the keys to a company car and a number of ATMs in the Canberra region.
Toumo'ua, now 35, then drove to Charnwood, Mitchell, Queanbeyan and Wanniassa, where he emptied $775,340 in cash from five ATMs.
He eventually abandoned the stolen vehicle in Holder, and lied to police the next day in written statements that said he had gone straight home from work and remained there overnight.
Less than a week later, he took a car his partner had hired to Melbourne, where he paid for a storage unit in which to stash some of the stolen money.
In the months that followed, he made "a large number of gambling transactions", while significant sums were also deposited into the bank account of Toumo'ua's then-partner.
An ACT Supreme Court judgment shows police investigating the thefts eventually managed to recover just short of $194,000 from the Dandenong storage facility, as well as more than $152,000 from a successful bet on the result of the 2013 AFL grand final.
Some $429,000 remains unrecovered.
Having been unmasked as the perpetrator through evidence found in the storage facility, Toumo'ua pleaded guilty in the ACT to theft, money laundering and four counts of burglary.
Justice Hilary Penfold sentenced him in 2016 to five years in jail, with a non-parole period of 20 months.
Prosecutors appealed, however, and the ACT Court of Appeal added a year to the overall term in 2017, ordering Toumo'ua to serve at least half of the six years in custody.
That sentence accounted for the $531,330 stolen from Canberra ATMs, but not the Queanbeyan incident given it had occurred across the border in NSW.
Police in that state therefore charged Toumo'ua following his release from jail with breaking, entering and stealing.
The 35-year-old pleaded guilty earlier this month in Queanbeyan Local Court, admitting he had nicked $244,010 from a St George ATM at Riverside Plaza.
Given the large amount in question, Magistrate Roger Clisdell committed him to the Queanbeyan District Court for sentence.
Toumo'ua's first appearance in that court has been listed for August 16.
