An employee who swindled $1.42 million from the ACT's betting agency will do 300 hours of community service after a knee replacement prevented her from doing weekend detention.
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Pamela Susan Close, 61, was caught using a glitch in ACTTAB's betting system to reopen races and place winning bets.
Close had spent a decade using the system flaw to make the guaranteed bets, before sending the winnings to fake accounts.
She gave some of the money to charity, but spent the rest herself.
The fraud was eventually discovered and referred to police, who charged Close and put her before the courts.
Close was originally sentenced to five years imprisonment, served as one year full-time, 18 months weekend detention, and the rest suspended.
But, after serving her stint full-time, Close encountered difficulties while in weekend detention.
She was forced to stop going to weekend detention after a knee replacement, because doctors told her to take eight weeks off.
The Sentence Administration Board was then presented with the choice to either send her back to prison full-time, or put the matter back before the ACT Supreme Court.
It chose the latter and Justice John Burns on Monday resentenced Close.
The court had earlier heard that Close was also now caring for her granddaughter and had cared for her estranged husband, who had health problems.
Justice Burns said it was not appropriate to send her back to full-time prison, given the reasons she missed weekend detention were outside of her control.
"Justice requires that, if anything, the sentence imposed should be somewhat less onerous then that imposed by his honour [former Chief Justice Terence Higgins]," he said.
Close was sentenced to 300 hours community service and put on a good behaviour order for four years.
She will need to complete the community service within two years.
