A former Adelaide prison boss will spend at least another year behind bars for stealing money from the inmates he was managing, in offending that a District Court judge described as "striking at the heart" of the custodial system.
Former Adelaide Remand Centre general manager Brenton John Williams was today given a two-year-and-11-month jail sentence with a "merciful" non-parole period of one year and seven months for one count of theft.
The 47-year-old has already served more than six months in jail since his arrest in July last year.
Judge Jo-Anne Deuter said that Williams stole almost $113,000 in seized prisoner money and remand centre petty cash from a safe inside his office between April and July last year.
She said that, over that same time period, the father-of-two put more than $1 million through poker machines at the Adelaide Casino.
Williams owed about $160,000 to the Australian Taxation Office and in superannuation payments, $70,000 to creditors and $14,000 to ReturnToWorkSA after a hotel business failed.
Judge Deuter said that Williams did not want to declare bankruptcy because he feared losing his job with Serco and stole money to "try [to] juggle the debts".
The court heard that Williams had a "significant win" from gambling and was able to return money he had stolen to the remand centre safe and pay some creditors.
"This led to you believing that the only way to recover your financial situation was to continue to win money by gambling," Judge Deuter said.
"You were gambling very large amounts of money chasing that win."
Gambling ramped up in 2022
The court was told that Williams gambled away $47,000 per year between 2016 and 2021, but his addiction spiralled to more than $1 million in 2022.
Judge Deuter said that Williams gambled more than $100,000 in 15 days last year.
"You chose not to declare bankruptcy but, instead, stole funds to gamble to try [to] avoid that eventuality," she said.
"Your type of offending strikes at the heart of our legal system, where those given higher positions must be held beyond reproach in order to maintain confidence in our public institutions."
Judge Deuter said that Williams had lost his job, his reputation and has had to be separated from the general prison population, given his former position within the corrections system.
She said Williams was receiving gambling counselling and had good prospects of rehabilitation.
