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Night at casino led to $10.5 million theft
Message was posted: 09:54 Aug 31st, 2006

User: RoDa77 Rank: Member Casino Gold: 170CG Contributor rating: 20281 Status: Offline http://www.DynamiteGambling.com/ Since I cant be a good example, I guess I will be a horrible warning!

Courtesy of: http://www.news.com.au By James Madden HIS first crime involved a relatively small amount, but by the time he appeared in court yesterday the former Commonwealth Bank staffer had gambled away the "income of a small Pacific nation". On New Years' Eve two years ago, Commonwealth Bank staffer Erick Tjandra transferred $4144 from someone's super fund to his own account for a night at Sydney's Star City casino. Fifteen months later, Tjandra was no longer having fun. When he was arrested at Star City on March 21, Tjandra had drained the accounts of dozens of CBA customers of almost $10.5 million, of which more than $8 million had been "poured down the throat of the casino". In the NSW District court, Tjandra, 32, pleaded guilty to 37 counts of obtaining money by deception. In the month before he was caught, Tjandra - a superannuation administrator at Colonial Mutual Life, a subsidiary of the CBA - transferred more than $4.2 million to his account. Yesterday, during his sentencing hearing, Tjandra told the court that his pathological gambling had been driven by the "underlying issue" that he had always thought he was a "failure". Although he knew what he was doing was wrong, Tjandra said it was difficult to stop because he alone was responsible for reconciling account discrepancies in his division of the bank, and so "it was fairly unlikely that anyone else would find out". "The fear was always there that I was going to be detected, but I was covering up all aspects of the payments," Tjandra said. "It became a matter of survival." The court heard that Tjandra's fraud spree came to an end when Star City staff became suspicious of his betting activities, and informed police. When he was arrested, he immediately confessed to the thefts. Tjandra had repaid about $1 million at the time of his arrest, while a further $1million was recovered from his bank account in March. Tjandra's wife, Linda Wun, told the court she had no idea her husband was stealing and gambling such massive amounts because she was in charge of the family finances and he had made no outlandish purchases over that period. Ms Wun said she had considered divorcing Tjandra but decided to stick with him because his attempts to rehabilitate himself seemed genuine. Tjandra said yesterday he was "very sorry" for his actions. "I wish I could take back all the gambling. I am ready for punishment." Justice Christopher Armitage said it should be remembered that Tjandra's crimes amounted to the income of "a small Pacific island, or a moderately sized company". He said Tjandra's crimes warranted a custodial term. He will be sentenced today.