This week a woman from Tasmania pleaded guilty to theft after she stole $940,000 from her former employer in order to gamble on a social casino, where she could not have won any money in return.
49-year-old Rachel Naomi Perri was charged with 25 counts of computer-related fraud and one count of standard fraud by the Supreme Court in Hobart. She worked as an account manager at the Tasmanian Veterinary Hospital from 2016 to 2019 before she was made redundant. After that time, irregularities related to banking transactions were discovered.
According to prosecutors, Perri made 475 fraudulent transactions, stealing $940,221 by transferring money from the hospital's bank account to credit cards, personal loans, and personal bank accounts that were in her name. She also was found to have opened a $30,000 credit card in her husband's name and racked up debt.
Perri told investigators that she spent all the stolen money on a social gambling game called Heart of Vegas, which sees you spending real money for credits, but not winning cash or anything tangible in return.
In an interview with police Perri said, "I got myself into so much trouble but decided I'd keep going until [I] got caught. I knew I couldn't get away with it. I was waiting for a knock on the door from police."
This isn't the first time Perri had a run-in with the law. In the 90s she was convicted of stealing $7,000 in cash from an employer.
The defendant says that she's entered therapy, and will need to continue to attend after she's released from prison. She's currently out on bail and awaiting sentencing next month.
Comments
So crazy and so sad. Hopefully she continues to get the help she needs.
Is it worse that she stole a million dollars from an animal hospital to play a free mobile game, or that the social casino and app store enabled such obscene levels of exploitation?
Not that it would be the first time: California man spent $1 million playing Game of War
2 CL-Ed, CL - klaw
That has to be one of the craziest stories I've read. And also it's bizarre that she stole money to gamble where she couldn't even win.
CL - klaw
Stealing to gamble is one thing, but stealing to buy gold coins to play literally for-entertainment-only games is beyond idiotic.
CL - klaw
This story is absolutely staggering. The typical "stole money to gamble" story is the person gets in a hole losing money so they steal more in an effort to win back their losses. I can't even comprehend the thought process this person must have gone through. Obviously there is an addiction issue there but what is she even addicted to? The game animations? The rush of winning worthless credits? Seeing her name on a leaderboard or something?
And yeah - the company running the game must have known they had this player who presumably spent far beyond anyone else in the world playing the game. It sounds like they did not report anything. Are they even obligated to? Is what they offer considered gambling? My mind boggles. So many questions...
2 CL - klaw, Matthew
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Never thought this kind of thing was actually possible like you said Ed ' what is she even addicted to? ' cant get my head around it really 🤔
Such a sad story, totally baffling. But I guess by the time you start stealing to feed a habit/addiction of any sort, logic goes out the window.
Matthew
She got 6 years in jail.
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