A retail worker has escaped with a suspended jail sentence after using an elderly customer's bank card details to go on a spending spree worth thousands.
The victim, a nursing home resident, did not live to see justice done, with the ACT Magistrates Court told he had died before fraudster Tracey Sue Kruzins, 44, was sentenced this week.
Kruzins had faced the prospect of making difficult disclosures from behind bars had things unfolded differently, having failed to tell her family or current employer about her shameful crime.
Court documents show the Latham resident was working at the Shaver Shop in Fyshwick when she started splashing out in October 2019.
She obtained the elderly victim's card details when he phoned the store and placed an order, then started ripping him off just four-and-a-half hours later.
Over a nine-day period, she made 62 transactions using the victim's money.
They included payments for services through Uber Eats, Uber Trip, PayPal, eBay, Optus, PartyLite and the McDonald's app, among other things.
The victim's son, who helped manage his father's finances, cancelled the card after Horizon Bank notified him of several "suspicious transactions".
It was later determined that 49 transactions made by the fraudster, totalling more than $3260, had been processed using the victim's card details.
A further 13 unauthorised payments, worth more than $2172, were still pending at the time.
Police were notified and investigators were able to trace the transactions to Kruzins because the victim's bank card details had been added to her Afterpay account.
When officers interviewed Kruzins in December 2019, she admitted to making the purchases in question.
But she initially insisted she had done so with her own funds and denied any knowledge of the victim's card details being used, claiming her Afterpay account and the other payment platforms she used must have been "hacked".
Kruzins was charged with dozens of fraud offences, and following negotiations she pleaded guilty to a single "rolled-up" count of obtaining property by deception.
On Wednesday afternoon, prosecutor Juanita Zankin said Kruzins had only stopped once her wrongdoing had been detected.
She said this was serious offending that involved a breach of trust given Kruzins had abused her position at work to get the victim's card details.
Ms Zankin also argued that the 44-year-old may have targeted the victim because he was elderly.
But Legal Aid lawyer Benjamin Rutzou insisted Kruzins had not known the man was "a vulnerable member of society", having only spoken to him over the phone.
Mr Rutzou said his client, a mother of four, was remorseful despite the fact she had hidden her offending from her family.
The court heard that the 44-year-old had also failed to own up to Strandbags, for which she now managed three Canberra stores.
Magistrate Peter Morrison described the amount Kruzins swindled as "not insignificant".
He said she would have had time during the offending period to reflect on her behaviour, but either completely ignored the fact it was wrong or was not bothered by that.
Mr Morrison said what Kruzins did "struck at the heart" of the integrity customers expected from a business when providing financial information over the phone.
He sentenced Kruzins to seven months in jail, but suspended the term and imposed an 18-month good behaviour order.
The magistrate also ordered the 44-year-old to complete 240 hours of community service within the next year, and to pay Horizon Bank $1944 in compensation for losses it sustained reimbursing the victim.
