R v AMMARI [2010] NSWDC 301

New South Wales District Court

CITATION: R v AMMARI [2010] NSWDC 301

HEARING DATE(S): 11 November 2010 EX TEMPORE JUDGMENT DATE : 11 November 2010

JURISDICTION: Criminal

JUDGMENT OF: Berman SC DCJ

DECISION: I revoke the order for suspension concerning the offence of embezzlement for which the offender was dealt with in the Local Court and sentenced to imprisonment for eighteen months. I therefore set a period of imprisonment of eighteen months. In the matter on indictment the offender is sentenced to imprisonment. I set a non-parole period of eighteen months, with a head sentence of three and a half years. That means that the overall effective sentence consists of a non parole period of two years, and a head sentence of four years.

CATCHWORDS: CRIMINAL LAW - Sentence - Embezzlement - Offence represents a breach of a suspended sentence - Continued offending - Principle of totality to be applied.

PARTIES: The Crown Glades Ammari

FILE NUMBER(S): DC 2009/274351

SOLICITORS: Director or Public Prosecutions Legal Aid Commission

SENTENCE

1 HIS HONOUR: Glades Ammari appears for sentence after having pleaded guilty in the Local Court at an early stage to an offence of embezzlement. She also appears for sentence because the commission of that offence represented a breach of a suspended sentence imposed upon her in the Local Court for a similar matter. Ms Ammari has, through her dishonesty, embezzled a substantial sum of money over a significant period of time. There is no alternative but that she serve periods of imprisonment.

2 The offence which is the second in time occurred when the offender was employed by Ragi Packaging Services Pty Limited. This company is a medium size operation, employing twenty people. It has between 300 and 500 customers. Ms Ammari was employed as a receptionist, although she also had responsibilities involving invoicing customers for their purchases. Customers were to pay their invoices by electronic funds transfer, putting the money into the company's bank account. In a remarkably simple but very effective way the offender managed to arrange for about forty customers to pay the money for their invoices not into the company's bank account but into her personal bank account. She simply contacted those customers by email, fax or telephone and told them that the account that they were to pay their invoices into had changed. She gave them details of her account, thus between 4 May 2009 and 27 November 2009 those forty customers paid Ms Ammari rather than Ragi Packaging Services a total of $540,160.83.