Man who conned his employer out of thousands of dollars sentenced in court

The court heard Tyson Swakek started a new job at a company where he would submit fake timesheets with hours of work he hadn't done, and received payment for them.

Swakek was incorrectly paid more than $17,000.

Magistrate Trieu Huynh asked why a man in his 30s with no criminal history was doing this.

"For any business, it's a significant amount," he said.

"This is a big breach of trust."

The court heard the man interviewed for a job with a local company, which he got and started with on March 24, 2022.

Swakek would make a timesheet, a supervisor would approve it, and it would be submitted for payment.

The court heard Swakek started working for a different company but was still employed by the original company.

On July 14, 2022 a manager noticed discrepancies in the timesheets Swakek submitted and the hours he worked.

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At one point, a timesheet he entered said he worked 37.5 hours but he wasn't at work that day.

His timesheet dated June 19, 2022 said he worked 54.5 hours but his swipe card showed he didn't work at all that week and was paid more than $2000.

In another instance, Swakek said he worked 44.5 hours but his swipe card showed he only worked 20.5 hours and was paid more than $1700.

On 24 June 2022 Swakek was interviewed and made full admissions and agreed the business could track him via his swipe card.

The accused said he agreed he didn't get a supervisor to sign any of his timesheets and told police he had car and family problems.

When asked why he didn't work when he said he did in his timesheets, Swakek said he didn't know and that it backfired on him.

The accused said the money he received was gone - with most of it spent on gambling at pokies.

"I had a gambling addiction that went out of control," he said.

"I haven't touched it since then.

"I know it was stupid what I done."

Swakek said he regretted it at the time and was very nervous.

The court heard he had anxiety.

Magistrate Huhyn said Swakek was remorseful and made full admissions.

The magistrate said to him he didn't think they were at the point where he needed to send him to jail.

Swakek was convicted and sentenced to a CCO with 100 hours of community service work.

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