R v Thomas Douglas WATKINS [2006] NSWDC 54

New South Wales District Court

CITATION: R v Thomas Douglas WATKINS [2006] NSWDC 54

HEARING DATE(S): 10/07/2006 - 03/08/2006 Trial 13/10/2006 - Sentence

JUDGMENT DATE: 13 October 2006

EX TEMPORE JUDGMENT DATE : 10/13/2006

JUDGMENT OF: Berman SC DCJ

DECISION: See paragraph 24

CATCHWORDS: Criminal Law - Dishonesty - Sentence - Gambling - Breach of trust

LEGISLATION CITED: Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999 Crimes Act 1900

CASES CITED: Rv Gilmore (1979) 1 A Crim R 416

PARTIES: DPP Thomas Douglas WATKINS

FILE NUMBER(S): 05/11/0742

COUNSEL: S Higgins (Solicitor) - Crown A Martin - Accused

SOLICITORS: NSW DPP Nikola Velcic & Associates (Offender)

SENTENCE

1 HIS HONOUR: Thomas Douglas Watkins, known as Doug Watkins, was employed as the financial controller for a successful family company, Tasman KB Pty Limited. That company conducted its timber wholesaling business with a head office in Sydney and other offices in Brisbane and Melbourne. Over a considerable period of time the offender took over two million dollars from the company. He now stands to be sentenced on 43 separate charges under section 176A of the Crimes Act. Each offence carries a maximum penalty of 10 years.

2 The offender's crimes were relatively unsophisticated. He was not a signatory to any of the company's bank accounts, but he was permitted and indeed required to prepare cheques for signatures by one of the three signatories. On 43 separate occasions he presented a cheque to a particular signatory, David McAndrew. Each time the cheque was presented to Mr McAndrew for his signature, the payee line read "Pay Westpac St Marys". Mr McAndrew, no doubt influenced by his trust in the offender, believed that these were cheques which needed to be signed in order to effect a transfer from the company's Brisbane bank account to the company's Sydney bank account. The cheques were all drawn on the Brisbane account and the company had an account at the St Marys branch of the Westpac Bank, so Mr McAndrew signed the cheques. The offender had left a gap between the word "Pay" which is printed on the cheque and his handwritten entry "Westpac St Marys". Into each of those gaps the offender wrote the words "T Watkins", so that the payee line on the cheques now read "Pay T Watkins Westpac St Marys". He then deposited each of the 43 cheques into his own personal bank account at Westpac St Marys and spent the money gambling.