construction.net.au

Posted

September 11, 2019 15:23:22

A former credit manager of one of South Australia’s largest companies has faced court accused of defrauding her employer out of more than $12.4 million.

Glenda Ivy Burgess, 61, briefly appeared in the Adelaide Magistrates Court today charged with 230 offences, including aggravated deception and 144 counts of dishonestly dealing with documents.

Prosecutors allege she falsified business records to the tune of $12.4 million while she was employed by Adelaide Brighton Cement as a credit manager between 2009 and 2017.

Ms Burgess, from Hillbank in Adelaide’s north, was arrested in August.

At the time, police said she had been charged after a lengthy investigation by the Serious and Organised Financial Crime Investigation Section.

The hearing before Magistrate Greg Fisher was adjourned until late February to give prosecutors time to prepare their case.

Accused denies charges

Outside court, her lawyer John Pearce, said his client would be contesting the charges.

“She will be entering a plea of not guilty in due course,” he said.

Mr Pearce said that they were “in the hands of the prosecution”.

“The matter will take a long time to resolve — there’s nothing more to be done in the interim, I’m afraid,” he said.

He advised members of the media to not ask Ms Burgess any questions as they left court.

“Address questions to me, not to my client,” he said.

“This is a distressing experience for Glenda … please do not do anything to make it any more distressing for her.”

Adelaide Brighton Cement is based at Birkenhead, near Port Adelaide, and has more than 1,600 employees in all states and territories.

The company said the allegedly missing money had already been included in its financial statements.

Topics:

courts-and-trials,

business-economics-and-finance,

industry,

building-and-construction,

law-crime-and-justice,

corruption,

fraud-and-corporate-crime,

adelaide-5000,

hillbank-5112,

birkenhead-5015,

sa,

australia