Prosecutors have told the ACT Supreme Court the theft of hundreds of thousands of dollars from a Canberra child care centre by a former director was an “egregious breach of trust,” and called for the woman to be jailed.<\/p>\n
The comments came during sentencing for former Weston Creek Children’s Centre director Emma Louise Morton, 51, for defrauding the non-profit organisation of $305,785.36.<\/p>\n
She pleaded guilty to three rolled up counts, which took in a series of frauds from March 2020 to February 2021.<\/p>\n
Each of the counts included multiple offences.<\/p>\n
Centre’s office manager ‘gaslit’ by offender<\/p>\n
The centre’s office manager, Kylie Goodwin, provided a victim impact statement to the court today, saying she felt “deeply betrayed”.<\/p>\n
Ms Goodwin said she was the “whistleblower” who went to police after she became concerned about the unusual spending.<\/p>\n
She said she queried Morton several times about the spending.<\/p>\n
“She made me feel as though I was in the wrong for even asking \u2014 gaslighting me into doubting my own concerns,” Ms Goodwin said.<\/p>\n
Ms Goodwin also said it later emerged there was no proper governance in place for the childcare centre, with no properly constituted board, leaving it in breach of regulations.<\/p>\n
She said the centre had to close for three days while measures were put in place to maintain its operation.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Weston Creek Children’s Centre office manager Kylie Goodwin told the court she felt deeply betrayed by Emma Morton (pictured). (ABC News: Alfred Beales)<\/p>\n
Ms Goodwin said the crime had taken a personal toll on her and left her emotionally drained, anxious, and requiring counselling.<\/p>\n
“I put my trust in Emma. She betrayed that trust,” Ms Goodwin said.<\/p>\n
Prosecutor Morgan Howe told the court counts one and three covered money taken from the Centre’s operating account.<\/p>\n
The court heard count two referred to $130,000 taken from a savings account, eventually transferred into an account controlled by Morton in three amounts.<\/p>\n
Mr Howe said the money was never spent, but that did not reduce the crime.<\/p>\n
“The offender assumed the rights to ownership,” Mr Howe said.<\/p>\n
Defence lawyer accepts explanation is ‘unsatisfactory’<\/p>\n
A sticking point during today’s hearing was the claim by Morton that she had taken the savings account money in case it was needed during COVID restrictions.<\/p>\n
Justice Belinda Baker questioned the lawyers about the assertion.<\/p>\n
Morton’s barrister Sam Pararajahsingham told the court it was a misguided motive.<\/p>\n
“I accept the explanation is somewhat obscure,” Mr Pararajahsingham said.<\/p>\n
“It is unsatisfactory.”<\/p>\n
Mr Howe said the other counts included false invoices lodged over a long period.<\/p>\n
He told the court comments made by Morton during a pre-sentence interview show a lack of remorse.<\/p>\n
Morton told the report author in hindsight she may have failed to follow protocol, using incorrect processes and practices.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Prosecutor Morgan Howe told the court Emma Morton made comments during a pre-sentence interview that showed a lack of remorse. (ABC News: Alfred Beales)<\/p>\n
Mr Howe said the pleas of guilty were an admission of dishonest conduct and a knowledge of that conduct.<\/p>\n
“The tenor of what she said \u2026 reflects someone who is particularly guarded,” Mr Howe said.<\/p>\n
He said it didn’t just show a lack of remorse, but a lack of insight into the criminality involved in the matter.<\/p>\n
Little attempt ‘to conceal the misappropriation of funds’<\/p>\n
In his submissions on behalf of Morton, Mr Pararajasingham told the court it was an unsophisticated crime.<\/p>\n
“Misleading entries in MYOB software made little attempt to \u2026 conceal the misappropriation of funds,” he said.<\/p>\n
Mr Pararajasingham said the multiple entries for the centre’s operating account, which was taken in by counts one and three, involved “high prospects of detection”.<\/p>\n
One entry was for staff training at a point that was mid-pandemic, which Mr Pararajasingham said was unlikely.<\/p>\n
But Justice Belinda Baker suggested that might not look like it should be questioned, given the business.<\/p>\n
“There are degrees of deception,” she said.<\/p>\n
“It’s not as if she wrote in the accounts, ‘I bought myself a watch today’.”<\/p>\n
Mr Pararajasingham said there was evidence where she used her own name and card to purchase personal items.<\/p>\n
He described it as “self-defeating conduct”.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Emma Morton’s lawyer told the court at the time of the offending her moral culpability was reduced by family illness and the death of her mother. (ABC News: Alfred Beales)<\/p>\n
Mr Pararajasingham also pointed to Morton’s mental health struggles around the start of the offending.<\/p>\n
He said in the lead up Morton had suffered a number of personal events, including losing her mother and family illness.<\/p>\n
Mr Pararajasingham said when she was at her worst the pandemic interrupted her mental health treatment.<\/p>\n
He said his client was “labouring under impaired cognition and impulse control” and that reduced her moral culpability.<\/p>\n
Prosecutor urges jail sentence\u00a0<\/p>\n
One issue raised in court was that Morton had agreed to pay back the money.<\/p>\n
Mr Howe said the court should not give much weight to that, saying the crime was still committed, whether she had the money to repay or not.<\/p>\n
“The public should not be left with the impression reparation can be bought,” Mr Howe said.<\/p>\n
Mr Howe also argued a term of prison was warranted, saying Morton had shown a lack of remorse and a lack of insight into her crime.<\/p>\n
But Mr Pararajasingham said if Morton is sent to jail, it should be short, with a long period of supervision in the community.<\/p>\n
Morton will be sentenced later in the year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Prosecutors have told the ACT Supreme Court the theft of hundreds of thousands of dollars from a Canberra…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":211961,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[2666,25718,64,63,2667,130281,130280,354,1105,44,40205,58040,130279],"class_list":{"0":"post-211960","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-australia","8":"tag-act","9":"tag-act-supreme-court","10":"tag-au","11":"tag-australia","12":"tag-canberra","13":"tag-defraud","14":"tag-emma-morton","15":"tag-fraud","16":"tag-guilty","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-sentencing","19":"tag-theft","20":"tag-weston-creek-childrens-centre"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211960"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211960\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/211961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}