An accountant stole over $2million by forging tax bills to feed his ‘all-consuming’ gambling habit that saw him placing up to 100 bets with a racing and sports app every day.
Jason Richard Poser, 35, faced Adelaide‘s District Court on Friday for a sentencing hearing over stealing the money from 85 separate superannuation funds between 2020 and 2022 while working for chartered accountants SuperGuardian.
He pleaded guilty to 34 counts of theft.
Prosecutor Frank Niemann told the court Poser stole amounts of $317,000 and $400,000 from Davco Nominees.
The victims, who trusted SuperGuardian to administer their self-managed super funds, were told by Poser the sums were owed to the Australian Taxation Office.
‘It’s after that has occurred he has then gone on to the ATO’s website or gone into each of the accounts, changed the refund details and returned the money to himself,’ Mr Niemann said, according to the Adelaide Advertiser.
‘The amounts stolen are from self-managed super funds, which is money that one would assume is for the victims to comfortably retire.’
Poser would also steal from one client to pay another, the court heard.
Jason Richard Poser, 35, has pleaded guilty stealing over $2million from his accountancy clients
In an apology letter Poser read to the court, he said he was truly sorry for his actions.
‘The financial aspect was damaging enough but the shock, anger and disappointment of being betrayed by someone you had every right to trust and who should have had your best interests front of mind,’ he said.
Poser stated he was acting from a place of desperation and sadness.
He also recognised that he had damaged the reputation of SuperGuardian.
In arguing for a sentence of home detention, Poser’s lawyer Michael Woods said even though his client had previously suffered ‘an all-consuming addiction’, he had ceased gambling for nearly two years.
Mr Woods said Poser was recorded as placing 16,638 Sportsbet bets in 2020, which then escalated to 24,037 in 2021 and 26,492 in 2022.
Power placed up to 100 bets a day with the stolen funds using a racing and sports gambling app
‘This is like 80, 100 bets a day. He can’t stop,’ Mr Woods said.
Mr Woods said Poser had worked at SuperGuardian since before he was 18 and had climbed the ladder to be a manager.
‘He’s lost his career, he’s ashamed, he’s embarrassed, his future is in jeopardy,’ Mr Woods said.
‘He’s lost the trust of those who he respected in his workplace and others, he’s lost his self respect.’
In the grip of his addiction Poser had continued to steal even though he knew that one day he would get a ‘horrible phone that someone had noticed’.
‘It was always going to fall over and it was always going to end up showing the paper trail,’ Mr Woods told the court.
There was no possibility that Poser would be able repay the stolen sums, according to his lawyer.
Poser will be sentenced next month.
