6 September 2016 – Author: Angus Thompson – Source: Herald Sun
AN ice-smoking bookkeeper who stole more than $330,000 from her employer said her rampant thieving made her feel important, a court has heard.
Diana Dimitrievski, 42, has been jailed after pleading guilty to fleecing family-run company Bora Engineering 178 times while working as a part-time bookkeeper between 2011 and 2015.
The County Court heard this afternoon Dimitrievski spent the money she stole on consumer goods, methylamphetamine and cannabis for her and her freeloading, drug-addicted friend.
In sentencing Dimitrievski to a year and nine months behind bars, Judge James Parrish said it was clear her deception was motivated by greed.
“Your offending was carefully planned and executed,” Judge Parrish said.
Dimitrievski, who took to ice after the end of a romantic relationship in 2012, stole large amounts of money by forging the signatures of her employers on scores of cheques.
She forged 124 cheques for a combined $292,000 made payable to herself, and more than $13,000 payable to her friend.
A staff member of the small Airport West business noticed in March 2015, crucial data on a workplace computer had been wiped.
Dimitrievski initially claimed the computer had a virus.
The staff member restored the items using data from a USB drive but, before he left work that day, noticed the data had again been wiped from the computer.
Dimitrievski didn’t return to work and her mobile phone was disconnected.
Judge Parrish said Dimitrievski had continuously stolen from her trusting bosses “while maintaining the deception that nothing was out of the ordinary.”
The court heard Dimitrievski had told a psychologist she felt “professional” and “important” while stealing the money, which she has now been ordered to refund.
Judge Parrish said Dimitrievski had failed to show genuine remorse and described her prospects of rehabilitation as “guarded.”
She has been ordered to undergo a two-year community corrections order following her release from prison
