Three people involved in defrauding an electrical wholesaler out of hundreds of thousands of dollars put the company into a "death spiral".
Ricky John Byrne, 50, Lisa Quilter, 46, and Steven Quilter, 46, faced a sentencing hearing in the ACT Supreme Court last week.
Byrne and Steven Quilter previously pleaded guilty to obtaining property by deception, theft, and money laundering. Lisa Quilter had pleaded guilty to money laundering.
Court documents state that Steven Quilter and Byrne started working at POPES Electrical and Data Supplies in Phillip in 2008.
From 2015, Steven Quilter was the branch manager and the other man a sales manager. They were responsible for the day-to-day running of the store.
Between 2016 and 2019, the two men defrauded the business of hundreds of thousands of dollars in false invoices, refunds and stock theft.
Steven Quilter and Byrne would buy electrical items from Harvey Norman and place them on the POPES' business credit card or account.
These items would then be either refunded into personal accounts, or added to the invoice statements of customers with large bills of up to $230,000 a month.
The two men also stole large amounts of stock directly from POPES. With the assistance of Steven's wife, Lisa Quilter, they would sell the items to associates, smaller businesses or place them on eBay.
The stolen items would be billed to large customers, who would pay at the end of the month, to cover stock losses at the store level.
Between May 2016 and October 2019, more than $460,000 in exchange for the stolen property was deposited into a joint bank account owned by the married couple.
About the same period, Byrne received more than $170,000 for his role in the theft.
The three offenders created hundreds of fake invoices as part of the enterprise.
A forensic accountant calculated the total loss suffered by POPES was more than $500,000. This included about $250,000 in commercial settlements paid to clients.
After claiming the insurance indemnity limit, the business was left more than $250,000 out of pocket.
The crimes were discovered in 2019 after a client queried a purchase order, believing they had been charged for items they never ordered.
Steven Quilter and Byrne quit several weeks later.
While the matter was reported to police in October 2019, police did not search the homes of the fraudsters until March and April 2025.
Byrne was living in Queanbeyan at the time, while Steven and Lisa Quilter had moved to the Gold Coast in Queensland.
Last week, in a victim impact statement that was read to the court, the owner of POPES said the local business had been operating for 40 years.
The financial loss was "catastrophic" and put the business in "a financial and operational death spiral," the owner said.
He described discovering the crimes as "one of the most distressing experiences of my life".
"The shock, stress and sense of betrayal were overwhelming."
The owner said the business which used to have three stores in Canberra was now down to one in Mitchell, and staff had been cut by more than half.
Prosecutor Morgan Howe accepted that Lisa Quilter did not have the same level of culpability for the crimes as her husband or Byrne.
However, Mr Howe argued all three offenders should spend a period of time behind bars.
He said Byrne's gambling issue had "subsided somewhat" but he now had access to "drastically less funds".
Legal Aid lawyer Ewan Small, representing Steven Quilter, said the man committed the crimes during a "descent into addiction" which began with abuse of legitimate medication.
Mr Small argued that in the years since the fraud the man had taken "concrete steps towards getting to a point where he is not at the beck and call of his substance abuse".
He urged the court to consider a sentence to be served in the community, rather than jail, to not set back Steven Quilter's rehabilitation.
Lisa Quilter's lawyer, Sarah Baker-Goldsmith, argued her client could serve her sentence in the community.
Ms Baker-Goldsmith said Lisa Quilter felt "a degree of coercion" by her husband to commit the crimes.
This was coupled with feeling "under pressure" because of financial circumstances.
Ms Baker-Goldsmith argued the significant five-year delay in the criminal investigation meant "they've lived under this shadow of potentially waiting to be charged".
Defence lawyer Aaron Kernaghan, representing Byrne, urged the court to take the delay in laying charges into account.
Acting Justice James Stewart is set to hand down the three sentences next month.
