Soon after former security company worker Salesi Latu Toumo'ua stole more than half a million dollars from several Canberra ATMs to fund an extensive gambling spree, he had told his devastated and unsuspecting employers:
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"The bastards that did this deserve 20 years behind bars."
Now the owners of G&A Security have spoken of the lasting sentence Toumo'ua's secret crimes imposed on them – crushing their company, generating lifelong financial debt and destroying the couple's plans for their family and former employees.
Toumo'ua, an ATM technician, was acting supervisor when he took keys to numerous St George bank ATMs from a safe at the company's Weston office one night in May 2013.
He then drove to ATMs in Charnwood, Mitchell and Wanniassa shops, where he used the keys to access the machines and stole $530,000 within hours.
Toumo'ua, 29, stashed the stolen money in a Melbourne storage facility and went on to launder it through a lengthy string of transactions, using mainly a Tabcorp telephone betting account, during the next five months.
In one transaction, the offender bought 28 tickets to bet $52,758 on Hawthorn Football Club to win that year's AFL premiership in September. He pocketed $152,249 when the team won the match.
In separate transactions, he gambled $71,461 in cash at nine Tabcorp outlets in Melbourne in 24 hours.
Toumo'ua was arrested after police searched the storage unit and seized items including a briefcase, more than 40 Tabcorp betting tickets, $193,782 in cash and a receipt from the Charnwood ATM.
He was charged with theft, money laundering and burglary. His partner, Siutaisa Helen Schaaf, 29, was charged with money laundering.
They each pleaded guilty to the offences this year and faced the ACT Supreme Court for sentencing on Wednesday.
Former G&A Security owner Glen Tibbitts grew emotional as he told a packed courtroom of the devastating impact the pair's crimes had had on him and his wife, saying their lives had spiralled downwards after the company was forced into liquidation.
"They have broken my spirit and shattered my dreams.
"I started a sentence Salesi imposed on me nearly three years ago to the day."
He recalled Toumo'ua coming to him soon after the thefts, as police still searched for those responsible, and telling him the offenders deserved to be locked up.
"This is the only thing I believe Salesi telling me, because everything else has been lies and deceit."
Crown prosecutor Anthony Williamson said the loss to the couple as a result of the theft – which he claimed could be the biggest of its type in ACT history – was profound.
He said Toumu'ua had "used and exploited" the fact his boss left him in charge while he tended to a family crisis in Melbourne – actions that constituted a significant breach of trust.
Mr Williamson argued only a term of full-time imprisonment would be appropriate for Toumo'ua.
He said Schaaf, who deposited more than $28,000 in numerous transactions into her own bank account, also deserved a term of imprisonment, though he said her involvement did not necessarily warrant full-time custody.
Defence barrister James Lawton acknowledged the amount of money and methodology involved meant the offences were serious, but argued they were mid-range for offences of their type.
He said the pair were otherwise of good character as he pushed for an intensive corrections order, a new form of sentencing that allows offenders to serve their time in the community, instead of a jail term.
Justice Hilary Penfold will sentence the pair in June.
