Former law firm office manager steals $2.1m

The money, which she stole over a period of eight years, funded her lavish lifestyle.

A former office manager of a law firm in Fremantle, south of Perth, has admitted to stealing more than $2m from her employer.
 
Maria Gloria Camarda pleaded guilty to two counts of stealing as a servant which has a maximum penalty of 10 years imprisonment.
 
According to Perth Now, Camarda siphoned more $2.1 million from 2007 to 2015 from two trust accounts managed by the law firm and used the money to fund her profligate lifestyle.
 
The publication noted that Detective Senior Sergeant Steve Potter said the tattooed 48-year-old spent the money to buy cloths, pay her bills and mortgage and gamble at Crown Perth.
 
“Over that time, she was just paying herself extra wages,” Potter said. “Obviously she had been working there a while and they had trusted her and at some stage she decided it was too easy (to defraud them).”
 
“You’ve just got to be careful if one person alone is doing these things, there needs to be someone checking the checker,” he added.
 
The woman’s Instagram account shows her living the life of a socialite. She can be seen living it up at different parties and events.
 
As noted by Perth Now, he Instagram account shows pictures with Ben Cousins. She also has photos with other famous footballers including Nic Naitanui, Matthew Pavlich, Sam Newman, Jonathan Brown, Andrew Gaff, Matthew Priddis, Taylor “Tex” Walker and Steve Johnson, the report said.
 
To be sentenced later this year, Camarda will make her first appearance in the Perth District Court this October.
 
Earlier this month, well-known Queensland lawyer Tim Meehan was sued along with his mistress and law clerk Xanthe Larcombe-Weate for allegedly stealing money from their law firm.

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