A Coles store boss who was “caught red-handed with $38,770 in cash” as he attempted to fleece the supermarket giant of more than $90,000 has been jailed.
Dean Andrew Stevenson, 32, managed the Cannon Hill store in Brisbane’s east in 2020 and 2021 in a role that gave him passcodes to access receptacles containing huge volumes of cash.
He first pilfered a sum of $16,210 in late 2020 before taking $7520 a short time later, sparking an investigation into the missing money.
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During the investigation, he took a wad of cash totalling $22,275 and then another of $5235.
Investigators became suspicious of Stevenson when they learned he had turned off security cameras as he went about stealing the money.
They stung him by putting in extra cameras in the building.
“You were caught red-handed with $38,770 in cash,” District Court Judge Paul Smith said in sentencing Stevenson in February, in remarks published this week.
That money was given back to Coles, but “$51,240 is outstanding”, Smith said.
Smith noted Stevenson had been gambling “large sums of money” and had been depressed by his and his partner’s decision to terminate a pregnancy.
He was “regarded as a decent person otherwise”, had good employment and education history and had fulfilled all his bail obligations.
“This seems to be part of the dark side of your character, this fraud,” Smith said.
He jailed Stevenson for three-and-a-half years, to be suspended after six months.
He also ordered he pay Coles the outstanding $51,240, with an extra six months to be added to his sentence if he fails to do so.