A man formerly from Young was convicted and handed a 15 month prison sentence to be served by an intensive corrections order in Young Local Court.
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Michael Andrew Plumb, 27, was convicted on 16 charges of stealing money from a hotel in Young by Magistrate Michael O’Brien.
Plumb, who is now a resident of Queanbeyan, was convicted and ordered to pay reparations after he was recorded on CCTV removing money from a poker machine, changing it to larger notes and placing the money in his wallet.
Over an 18-month period from September 2014 to February 2016 police alleged Plumb had pocketed cash from the poker machines during his shifts at the hotel.
Plumb’s thefts were picked up by the licencee of the hotel who initiated an internal audit and made the discovery of the missing $32,567.
In court Plumb’s solicitor Ms Power tendered receipts and said he had started to pay back the amount, having deposited about $1400 into an account for the victim.
Ms Power also submitted her client’s diagnosis of a mental condition and his suitability to serve an intensive corrections order rather than imprisonment and argued that if he was able to serve the term of his sentence in the community he would be able to pay the money back to the licencee.
Plumb had said in interviews with police and a phone call which was recorded by police that he didn’t know why he had taken the money.
According to police facts, over the course of the 18-month period the amounts that Plumb took were:
September 2014 – $175, November 2014 – $2710, December 2014 – $675, January 2015 - $1855, March 2015 - $2780, April 2015 – $1415, May 2015 – $2232, June 2015 – $3095, July 2015 – $1510.
During the months of August and September 2015 Plumb found himself another job and was only coming back to work at the hotel once a month where he stole $980 in August and $980 in September.
In mid-October Plumb lost his job and started working back at the hotel when money started to go missing again. The amounts were: October 2015 – $1305.05, November 2015 – $5370, December 2015 – $1485, January 2016 – $5205, February 2016 – $350.
On February 5, 2016, Plumb was captured on CCTV removing money from a machine, leaving the bar and returning to change the money to larger bills before placing it in his wallet.
