Periclis Telios, a man who stole more than $220,000 from his daughter’s kindergarten association to feed his gambling habit, has been jailed for four years.
County Court Judge Carolyn Douglas said on Tuesday that Periclis Telios had breached the trust other parents had placed in him when he was elected president of the Ward Avenue Kindergarten Association.
“Your family have also suffered and have had to move house. A decision has been made not to send your young daughter to the local school because the families continue to express anger towards you,” the judge said.
Telios, 41, of Bentleigh, pleaded guilty to one count of theft after admitting stealing $224,008.49 from the association between February and October last year. He was jailed for a total of four years with a two-year non-parole period.
Judge Douglas said Telios, who is married with two children, had been a problem gambler for more than 25 years. She accepted he was remorseful and that his offending was motivated by his need to pay off his gambling debts, not greed.
Telios, who had past convictions for dishonesty, was elected the association’s committee president in November 2011 when there were no other candidates. He began withdrawing money from the association’s operating bank account from February 1 last year.
After his arrest, Telios told police he had spent all the money on “pretty heavy gambling… Tattslotto, AFL betting, horses, greyhounds, harness, you name it”.
Source: The Age