Wendy Jobson, a Koroneos Group employee who stole more than $7.8 million so she could gamble, has been sentenced to eight years jail.

In sentencing, Justice Phillip Priest described the case as a massive fraud covered up with a sophisticated system of false accounting.

Ms Jobson’s lawyers argued she suffered from dissociative identity disorder, commonly understood as split personality, which meant she was not in complete control at the time.

The 50-year-old mother of two from Werribee was allegedly influenced by another personality she calls ‘Reggie’ when she stole millions from her employer of 16 years.

Mr Mitchell Koroneos, managing director of the Koroneos Group that owns four hotels, initially thought the financial problems stemmed from renovations, increased bank fees and poker machine overheads.

He had regarded Ms Jobson as reliable, confident and friendly, someone who “never made mistakes”, and was shocked when police told him the magnitude of her theft. From 2005, Jobson’s position allowed her access to the group’s 12 bank accounts from which she transferred money into her personal account. He initially thought she had taken $40,000.

Ms Jobson used most of the money to play the pokies on online gambling site 21Nova, but also bought a $40,000 car for her son and paid for overseas trips and a corporate box at Etihad Stadium.

Treating psychiatrist, Dr Sylvia Solinski, told the court Jobson has at least 10 personalities that she claimed surfaced after suffering sexual harassment at work.

Dr Solinski said stealing millions from the company was also an act of defiance by Ms Jobson’s ‘system’. Something bad was allegedly happening to her and no one was noticing her so she stole to get noticed, even though one of her personalities was “absolutely horrified” by what she was doing.

Judge Priest ruled the disorder did not reduce Jobson’s culpability when she would deliberately cover her tracks.

“You were fully aware of what you were doing,” he told Jobson. “Moreover, your claim that you did not know what you were doing does not sit well with your actions in deliberately covering up your thefts through false accounting.”

Judge Priest said her dishonesty was “calculated and protracted” using “elaborate” bogus invoicing.

Jobson will serve a minimum of five years in jail before being eligible for parole.

Source: ABC/The Border Mail.