Director of Public Prosecutions v Farrell
[2013] VCC 1894
•22 November 2013
| IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA | Revised (Not) Restricted Suitable for Publication |
AT GEELONG
CRIMINAL DIVISION
Case No. CR-13-00621
| DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS |
| v |
| JOANNE ELIZABETH FARRELL |
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JUDGE: | HIS HONOUR JUDGE PARSONS | |
WHERE HELD: | Geelong | |
DATE OF HEARING: | 19 November 2013 | |
DATE OF SENTENCE: | 22 November 2013 | |
CASE MAY BE CITED AS: | DPP v Farrell | |
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION: | [2013] VCC 1894 | |
REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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APPEARANCES: | Counsel | Solicitors |
| For the DPP | Mr P.L. Bourke | OPP |
| For the Accused | Mr S. Balkin | S.Balkin & Solicitors |
HIS HONOUR:
1 You, Joanne Elizabeth Farrell have pleaded guilty before me to nine counts of theft, two counts of obtaining financial advantage by deception, one count of obtaining property by deception and one count of making a false document.
2 These crimes arise out of circumstances which were opened in considerable detail and the prosecution opening for plea is Exhibit 1.
3 In broad compass, the matters with which I am concerned begin in approximately September 2012. At that time you were employed at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. You had been employed by the bank at the Corio Branch for approximately 14 years and at the time of the offending you held the position of Customer Service Manager.
4 Your duties included supervising other tellers and the balancing of their daily transactions as well as acting as a teller when the need arose. You were second in charge of the branch, second only to the Branch Manager.
5 Various transactions involved a number of thefts and other dishonest dealings with various accounts held by persons at the Commonwealth Bank. Those persons included family friends, your own parents and bank customers.
6 The bank has reimbursed each account holder for the value of the money stolen in the sum of $244,498.37.
7 With respect to the particular charges, Charge 1 occurred in May 2006 when you withdraw $35,000 from an account held at the bank by your mother-in-law, Normal Farrell. You ensured that the interest due on the capital was paid to her so she would not become aware of the theft.
8 Approximately two and a half years later, on 23 January 2009, you fraudulently applied and received a MasterCard credit card in the name of your father, Peter Duncan. You did this without his knowledge. You used that credit card to the value of $15,095.56 and to avoid detection you arranged for mail associated to the account to be send to your post office box.
9 The third charge occurred on 21 September 2010 when Luke Parker attended at the bank and presented you with a cheque in the amount of slightly in excess of $41,000 with instructions it be deposited in an investment term deposit. The next day you withdrew the moneys and closed the account. Luke Parker was the son of a friend of yourself.
10 Charge 4. Between September 2010 and February 2011 you withdrew certain money without authority from the account of a bank customer called Veronica Moroney in the sum of just short of $19,000. She was a friend of yours.
11 Charge 5. In June 2011 you completed an application for a loan with the bank in the name of your father, again without his knowledge, for $25,000.
12 Charge 6,. Pursuant to the loan, which was the subject of Charge 5, you caused approximately $23,000 to be dispersed to various accounts in the name of Duncan, such as credit cards in that name, being utilised by you without authority.
13 Charge 7. On 20 December 2011 you withdrew $36,000 from the account of Mark Rappattoni. You also changed the mailing address on the account to your own post office box so Mr Rappattoni would not become aware of the withdrawals. Part of the $36,000 was paid into an account of Dennis and Dianne Keay from which you had previously made an unauthorised withdrawal in an amount of approximately $33,000. You knew Dianne Keay as she worked at the primary school which your children attended.
14 Charge 8. Between January 2012 and September 2012 you utilised a credit card in the name of your mother, Sylvia Duncan, without her authorisation in the amount of just short of $14,000 by way of cash advances. You told your mother that the account had been closed and then used the card in the manner referred to without your mother's knowledge.
15 Charge 9. On 30 March 2012 you effected a withdrawal of $52,000 from your father's superannuation account.
16 Charge 10. On 5 June 2012 you withdrew $28,000 from the account of Mark Rappattoni.
17 Charge 11. On 3 August 2012 you withdrew a further $10,000 from the account of Mark Rappattoni.
18 Charge 12. Twenty days later, on 23 August, you withdrew a further $6,000 from the account of Mark Rappattoni.
19 On 28 August 2012 you withdrew $1,000 from the account of Mark Rappattoni. This money was deposited in the account of Veronica Moroney. This was done by you as Ms Moroney was about to effect a withdrawal from her account which would have been declined but for the deposit of the $1,000 by you.
20 The withdrawals from the Rappattoni account were all in cash save for the $1,000 the subject of Charge 13. As best I can understand it, that means about $44,000 in cash was withdrawn by you from the period 5 June 2012 to 23 August 2012.
21 Charge 1 was committed, as I say, in May 2006 and Charges 2 to 13 were committed over a period of time spanning approximately three and a half years.
22 You were interviewed by bank investigators on 12 September 2012; you made full admissions. You were interviewed by Police on 30 November 2012 and again made full admissions.
23 Upon being interviewed you were unable to offer any other explanation for your offending over and above, what you described as, lifestyle.
24 Clearly, the aggravating aspects of these offences are constituted by the gross breach of trust of your employer and the element of planning which involved a large sum of money taken over a long time with elaborate plans employed by you to cover your tracks.
25 No Victim Impact Statements have been tendered in the matter although I have no doubt that the bank is obviously out of pocket in a substantial sum of money.
26 As was pointed out, however, by your counsel, there are a number of mitigating factors.
27 You have pleaded guilty. You are entitled to have that fact taken into account in your favour and I do so.
28 The community has, by your plea, been spared the time and cost of a trial. Witnesses have been spared the ordeal of giving evidence upon your trial. I can tell you that the sentence I intend to impose is far less than would have been imposed had you been found guilty after a trial.
29 Further, I take it into account in your favour that you intimated early your intention to plead guilty to the charges.
30 I also take into account the fact that you readily admitted your part in the crime and I do accept in the circumstances of your case that your plea does indicate true remorse for your actions, and indeed, that is a matter adverted to in the report of the psychologist, Cheryl Graham.
31 I have been told something of your personal history and your circumstances by Mr Balkin who appears for you.
32 You are currently aged 45. You are married but separated with two children who are aged 18 and 16, respectively, and indeed your younger son was present in court during these proceedings.
33 You have been with your husband for 28 years and purchased a house with him in the Corio area and you lived there for 21 years. I understand the house is worth $300,000 but there is a $240,000 mortgage.
34 I further understand that you separated from your husband this year as a consequence of you forming a relationship with another person.
35 You live now with your parents and your husband retains the house where he resides with your two children.
36 You attended Corio Primary School where you were school captain and then secondary school and you completed Year 12 and you clearly were very successful in the sports arena in both tennis and netball.
37 You joined the Commonwealth Bank in 1987, and apart from various occasions of maternity leave, you remained with the bank until you resigned in 2012 having spent 26 years, in effect, at the bank.
38 You were also very successful in the sporting arena and I understand that you and your former partner - your husband - have been both made life members of the North Geelong Football Club.
39 Subsequently since losing your job at the bank you have volunteered at the Karingal Disability Services and on your release from gaol it is your hope to be employed in the disability field, and indeed, you have been utilising the time since the commission of these offences to acquire adequate qualifications in that area so that you may be gainfully employed when you are released from prison.
40 You have no prior convictions and I sentence you as a person of previous good character.
41 Evidence was led on your behalf, and indeed, I heard from Ms Caroline Lynch, who has known you since you were five. She is as bewildered as anyone else about your offending. She said you had otherwise led a life that she regarded as perfectly normal, and indeed very successful, and had obviously always been a very good friend to her and she had absolutely no inkling of the fraud that you had perpetrated over those number of years. I suppose, in that sense, the mystery will remain of that very significant amount of cash that you withdrew and what happened to it.
42 I take into account the other material that has been put before me and I refer to the letter from the psychologist, Cheryl Graham. As I say, you expressed your remorse very strongly to her, and clearly you were suffering greatly at that time as a result of what you had done.
43 I also have regard to the significant contributions made by you to the community and I refer, in particular, to being made a life member of the North Geelong Football Club. These things are matters of significance in a community, and clearly whatever else you have done in your life, you have been rewarded for the good things that you have done. Very sadly this matter, of course, will now no doubt be what you are known for at least in the next period of time in your relevant community.
44 You have been in no further trouble since this matter.
45 I am, on balance, satisfied the chances of your rehabilitation are good. However, of course, as well as those matters personal to you to which I have referred, including the question of rehabilitation, I must also take into account such matters as deterrence and especially general deterrence which is of considerable importance in a case such as this involving such a large sum of money elaborately stolen over a lengthy period of time when you were in a position of significant trust.
46 Specific deterrence is not of great importance, it seems to me, given your age and circumstances and obvious remorse. I must also consider the question of the protection of members of the community from you and bear in mind the likelihood of your re-offending, which I find to be modest, in all the circumstances.
47 Yes, if you would stand, please, Ms Farrell.
48 These are without doubt serious offences and in all the circumstances I have no alternative to the imposition of a custodial sentence.
49 You are convicted and sentenced as follows.
50 On Count 1, 12 months imprisonment.
51 On Count 2, 12 months imprisonment.
52 On Count 3, 12 months imprisonment.
53 On Count 4, 12 months imprisonment.
54 On Count 5, three months imprisonment.
55 On Count 6, 12 months imprisonment.
56 On Count 7, 12 months imprisonment.
57 On Count 8, 12 months imprisonment.
58 On Count 9, 18 months imprisonment.
59 On Count 10, 12 months imprisonment.
60 On Count 11, 12 months imprisonment.
61 On Count 12, 12 months imprisonment.
62 On Count 13, three months imprisonment.
63 I direct that Count 9 be the head sentence.
64 I direct that two months on each of Counts 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, and 12 be served cumulatively on Count 9 and on each other.
65 That results in a total effective sentence of three years and two months.
66 I direct that you serve a minimum term of 21 months before becoming eligible for parole.
67 As prescribed by s.18(4) of the Sentencing Act I declare the period of time you have already spent in custody, three days, and I direct that such be noted in the records of the court.
68 But for your plea of guilty the sentence I would have imposed is five years with a non-parole period of three and a half years.
69 You can be seated, Ms Farrell.
70 Is there anything further.
71 MR BALKIN: No, Your Honour.
72 MR BOURKE: No, Your Honour.
73 HIS HONOUR: Yes, I have signed those compensation orders in respect of the Commonwealth Bank and I will hand those out to counsel.
74 COUNSEL: Thank you, Your Honour.
75 HIS HONOUR: Yes, Ms Farrell, if you go with the officer at the back of the court, thank you.
76 (Prisoner removed.)
77 That concludes matters. Thank you for your assistance during the circuit, Mr Bourke.
78 MR BOUKE: Thank you, Your Honour.
79 HIS HONOUR: Thank you instructor as well.
80 MR BOUKE: I will.
81 HIS HONOUR: I appreciate the hard work that has been done. Thank you, we will adjourn.
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