Former university dean Dianne Jolley has been spared jail time over her "bizarre" fake letter campaign and will serve her custodial sentence within the community.
Judge Ian Bourke sentenced Jolley on Friday in the District Court to serve an intensive corrections order of two years and six months for committing her "somewhat bizarre offences," he said.
The judge said he was unable to arrive at a clear conclusion as to why the academic had gone "to such extreme measures" as cutting up her own clothes and sending herself her own underwear.
He could not find she had shown genuine remorse given she proclaimed to have only sent herself one of the fake letters, despite a recorded phone call of her admitting to being "naughty twice".
"At first blush" her scam seemingly arose from some sort of psychological impairment, however her maintenance of a very senior position at the university meant it was implausible for her to be so affected by a mental impairment, the judge said.
It was submitted that Jolley had suffered significant extra curial punishment by way of "literally hundreds" of online media articles, damaging her reputation and preventing future employment opportunities.
"I am satisfied that it was the offender's own actions that brought these adverse consequences upon her," Judge Bourke said.
However, the judge ultimately found she did not pose a genuine risk to the community and her rehabilitation would be better served outside of a custodial setting.
The former University of Technology Sydney professor was found guilty in July of 10 charges of conveying information likely to make a person fear for their safety, knowing that it was misleading.
The 51-year-old academic was also found guilty on one charge of causing financial disadvantage by deception to her work after UTS spent more than $127,000 in security measures protecting her.
For months Jolley pretended to find alarming notes, one reading: "Goodbye, cya and good luck," with her photograph and a red line drawn through her face.
Another read: "Chop our future we chop yours".
The elaborate ploy between May and November 2019 included shredding nearly $2000 worth of her own clothing, and sending herself underwear.
Her employer racked up an expensive bill providing CCTV cameras installed in her home and office, monitoring alarms, private security chaperoning her around the university, and hire cars driving between home and work.
She gave evidence she had deliberately been caught writing the final letter so that UTS would dismiss her, saving her a three-month notice period if she resigned.
But she denied sending all the other threats, telling the court at one point she had been left "horrified and then I was concerned for my (family's) safety".
The crown case was she orchestrated the scheme to garner sympathy from the science faculty as she tried to close down the university's traditional Chinese medicine course.
The prosecutor said she was pushing for a performance-based reward of $40,000, on top of her $320,000 yearly salary, by having one of the most financially unviable courses in the faculty shut down.
However the judge did not agree this was the case given there was no evidence the bonus would be linked to the shutting down of the TCM course, nor did she have a history of being overly motivated by financial gain.
