A former ActewAGL employee accused of stealing thousands of dollars from ActewAGL customers' accounts in a plan allegedly devised with her colleague has pleaded guilty to fraud.
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Jessica Kate Anderson, 29, and Taylor Jade Geoghegan, 20, were contractors at the company when it's alleged they found accounts in credit before transferring the money to bank accounts belonging to Ms Anderson.
They were arrested after a customer questioned a refund that appeared on her bill and ActewAGL launched an internal probe earlier this year.
Anderson pleaded guilty to four counts of fraud, two counts of attempted fraud and two counts of joint commission fraud when the two women faced the ACT Magistrates Court separately on Thursday.
The fraud amounts add up to some $12,000, with $5700 in attempts.
The prosecutor also indicated Ms Anderson would soon be charged with two property damage offences. Other charges are still to be resolved.
Ms Geoghegan pleaded not guilty to 18 charges, including fraud and making a false or misleading statement.
A police statement of allegations, tendered during an earlier court appearance, said the women came up with the money-making plan in a series of work emails from March this year.
They were employed as contractors in the company's call centre at the time.
"OMG I HAVE THE BEST IDEA," Ms Geoghegan had allegedly written.
She then then sent a link to a news article about a shoplifter who stole phones from a store in the United States and wrote, "I think it's an excellent idea".
Anderson allegedly replied: "I agree and would be pretty easy I reckon. Destruction starts todayyyyy".
It's alleged the pair looked for accounts in credit and then saved the personal details. They then arranged for the credit to be refunded into various bank accounts, including one belonging to Anderson.
Both women resigned from the recruitment service they worked for in May. They bought plane tickets to Las Vegas for December that same day, court documents said.
Police searched Ms Anderson's home on June 30, the same day she allegedly sent Ms Geoghegan a text message that read, "Are u[sic] calling me on private? X".
When her friend replied with "Nope," she allegedly texted back: " Ahh gad[sic] what if its[sic] the police?"
The women were arrested soon after.
They are both on bail. It's expected Anderson will be committed for sentence in the ACT Supreme Court, while Ms Geoghegan returns to the lower court in November.
In a separate matter before the courts, Ms Anderson's brother Christopher Anderson, 25, of Chisholm, pleaded guilty last month to phoning a man who worked with his sister, and threatening to kill him, the day after she was arrested.
