Sheree Lee-Anne Edwards jailed for stealing $500,000 from Bunbury family business
ABC News
By Jacqueline Lynch
30 January 2017

An A-frame sign for WA Strata Management on the ground outside a glass door.
(ABC News: Jacqui Lynch
)

A former director of a Bunbury property management company will spend at least 16 months in jail, after stealing more than $500,000 from the family business.

Sheree Lee-Anne Edwards stole the money from WA Strata Management in Bunbury, where she was co-director of the company alongside her in-laws.

The District Court in Bunbury was told the money was taken from the company's trust account over a 16-month period, beginning in March 2015.

Edwards was charged with 83 counts of stealing as a director or officer of a company, an offence which carries a maximum jail term of 10 years.

The amounts stolen ranged from $562 to $25,000 and were disguised as payments for utilities and other services.

Edwards' defence lawyer spoke about his client's lack of criminal record and the deep shame she felt as a result of her actions.

The court was told Edwards was in a tough financial situation, with a hairdressing business she had bought into under strain, and her husband unemployed at the time.

The prosecution argued Edwards had used only a small portion of the stolen money for the struggling beauty business, and on one occasion she already had $80,000 in her bank account when she transferred more money from the company account.

In handing down his sentence Judge Michael Gething noted that $412,000 of the stolen money had been repaid by Edwards with help from her family and by selling her assets.

Taking into account an early guilty plea and her personal circumstances Judge Gething ordered Edwards to spend two years and eight months behind bars, describing her offences as "deliberate, systematic and planned".

Edwards will be eligible for parole on May 30 next year.

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