An alcohol promoter has pleaded guilty to faking work with Canberra nightspots and liquor stores to fraudulently make tens of thousands of dollars of personal purchases on her corporate credit card.
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Jacqueline Louise McGowan, 40, worked with promotion and distribution company Bacardi Lion when she began committing the fraud.
According to court documents, she "systematically and dishonestly" used her managerial position to make purchases on the company card, disguising them as expenses she had incurred while working with local pubs, liquor stores, and nightclubs.
The attempts to disguise the purchases as work-related were sometimes unsophisticated.
Her son's school fees, for example, were paid for on the corporate card, but McGowan claimed the expense was for "artwork" at the now-closed ICBM nightclub in Civic.
She paid for her two children's swimming lessons on the card, and then claimed someone from the pool had done embroidery on bar shirts and aprons for a local venue.
Toys were purchased from Super Toyworld and Hobbies in Fyshwick, and she paid for her car registration, disguising it as a paid parking voucher for work.
She billed her work for video games - WWE SmackDown vs Raw 10 and Rugby League Challenge, for example - and for DVDs like The Simpsons and Hannah Montana.
A $135 haircut put on the card was disguised as a "gift basket" for the ACT Racing Club, a client of the company.
She invented a bar called Banque, supposedly in Manuka, which she used in an attempt to secure $15,000 from her company, and Reaction, a bar supposedly associated with the now-closed group of Civic bars, ICBM, Meche, and North Bar, which she used to secure roughly $14,000.
There was also fraud relating to a removalist company, and she used "bonus stock" provisions at a liquor wholesaler to obtain 180 cartons of pre-mixed bourbon and coke by deception, valued at $13,069, which she gave to ICBM to help her maintain favour with the club.
McGowan's actions were detected in 2011 and she was sacked. A forensic audit was conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the case was referred to police.
Her deception involved 197 transactions worth $59,517 on her corporate credit card, fraudulently obtaining property on six occasions worth $54,915, and attempting to obtain another $15,000 worth of property.
All up, the 216 fraudulent transactions were worth $129,432. She also committed 12 acts of forgery worth $46,775.
McGowan originally intended to fight the allegations at trial in the ACT Supreme Court.
But on Thursday she was arraigned by Justice John Burns and pleaded guilty to four fraud charges.
McGowan will be sentenced in August.
Lion Nathan Insurance, Bacardi Lion's parent company, is seeking a reparation order for $114,432.
