Arabic version: سجن محاسبة في نيوكاسل بتهمة احتيال بقيمة 878 ألف دولار على شبكة IGA

According to ABC News, Newcastle accountant Narelle Labuts has been sentenced to three and a half years in prison for defrauding an IGA supermarket network of $878,000. The 61-year-old will serve a non-parole period of two years and will be eligible for parole in July 2028.

Labuts worked for the Singh Group, which owns 10 IGA stores in the Hunter Valley, New South Wales. She was dismissed in 2021 after a bank flagged an unusual transaction. Newcastle District Court heard she concealed misconduct across four years by using white font on 522 transactions.

Police charged Labuts in October 2024 with obtaining financial advantage by deception and making a false document to obtain a financial advantage. She pleaded guilty at the end of last year. Judge Tim Gartelmann SC said the offending began opportunistically but became conduct requiring significant planning and organisation.

The court heard Labuts had repaid $3,500, while the IGA network recovered a further $9,000 by withholding her entitlements. She told the court that 90 per cent of the money had been lost on poker machines and said she had been receiving gambling counselling since June 2022. Labuts apologised for destroying the trust placed in her by her employer.