Periclis Telios has been found guilty of stealing more than $220,000 from his daughter’s kindergarten, a court heard this week.
41-year-old Telios, who has a known gambling problem, pleaded guilty in the County Court and admitted to stealing $224,008.49 from the Ward Avenue Kindergarten Association at Oakleigh South between February and October last year.
Mr Telios accessed the funds as the volunteer president of the committee at the Oakleigh kindergarten, and was elected because no other candidates put their hand up for the role.
During the court proceedings, Judge Carolyn Douglas described his role as president akin to “putting the fox in the chook pen”.
As the president of the association, Telios was responsible for managing the kindergarten’s non-teaching activities, including the payment of maintenance, equipment, excursions and daily operating expenses, and operated bank accounts from income gathered through fees, fundraising and government grants. Telios began withdrawing money from these funds and was found out when other committee members noticed there wasn’t enough money to pay for bills and expenses.
When the committee members investigated the accounts in September last year, they were told by the NAB branch in Clayton that the accounts were empty. Following this, a police investigation followed, arresting Telios for the crime.
Telios told police he had spent all the money on “pretty heavy gambling . . . Tattslotto, AFL betting, horses, greyhounds, harness, you name it.
“I didn’t think it would reach this stage. It occurred virtually if not every day, every second day.
“The losses started coming. I started panicking like crazy and the more I was losing the more I panicked.”
A problem gambler for over 20 years, Telios was hoping that a relative could intervene and help him pay back the stolen money, but this didn’t eventuate.
Telios was remanded in custody to be sentenced July 23.
Source: The Age