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Michelle Kathleen Lawson discussed the hardships of farming with the family that employed her for almost two decades while secretly taking from their accounts, a court has heard.
Michelle Kathleen Lawson, 53, defrauded the farming family that employed her in Tully, between Cairns and Townsville. Michelle Kathleen Lawson has pleaded guilty to defrauding seven businesses belonging to members of a farming family from Tully in Far North Queensland.
The District Court heard Lawson funded luxuries with the money gained while working as the family's trusted bookkeeper. As a pioneering Far North Queensland farming family battled cyclones, floods and an outbreak of Panama disease, a trusted employee was secretly stealing millions of dollars behind their backs. The Johnston family of Tully, south of Cairns, thought of Michelle Kathleen Lawson as their friend and devoted bookkeeper.
But the District Court in Cairns heard Lawson, 53, used her trusted position to fund a "lavish" lifestyle through payments to her own bank account and those of her husband and son. As members of the Johnston family started new businesses, Lawson would begin defrauding them, hiding payments on the books under the names of false employees, the court heard. Lawson pleaded guilty to seven counts of fraud, spanning a six-year period and totalling about $2.8 million.
The court heard the former justice of the peace and one-time treasurer of the local business chamber spent the money on horses, cars, holidays, property, her own business and extra tuition for her children. Lawson's crimes have devastated the Johnstons, who invited her to their weddings and once congratulated her for buying a clothing boutique with her sisters, unaware their money helped fund it.
ABC News: Dominic CansdaleIn a victim impact statement, Jill Johnston, 81, recounted how she thought a family meeting at her home in June 2023 was to sign papers for a succession plan. Instead, the matriarch was told what Lawson, who ran the family businesses' finances for 18 years, had done.
"I carry a deep sense of guilt that I did not detect the fraud. Lawson's fraud continued as a Panama disease outbreak forced the Johnstons to stop producing bananas. The court heard Lawson wanted to return to work soon after her son's birth, so Mrs Johnston arranged for a cot to be placed in the business's air-conditioned office.
Lawson also declined an offer to have someone cover her while she took her daughter on the horse show circuit, the court heard.
"She insisted she would keep doing the wages herself because she did not want to have to fix someone else's mistake," Mrs Johnston said in her statement. "In the more than three years since this has come to light, Michelle has never apologised to me or my family. " Mrs Johnston's children Paul, Anthony, Stephen and Melanie also made statements outlining how Lawson's betrayal had generational consequences.
The court heard Lawson cost the family the chance to employ more staff, pay for machinery and chemicals outright, and stymied plans to buy a neighbouring property.
"It's a bitter pill to swallow as I view that farm every day on my way to work," Paul Johnston's statement said. Stephen Johnston said the family resolved to take civil action to recover money from Lawson, who discussed the hardships of farming while skimming from the businesses.
"We owed it to my mother and the life's work of my late father not to let what was taken simply disappear. "The court heard the Johnstons managed to recover almost $1.5 million through civil action, but the legal fees and forensic accounting to do so cost about $500,000. Defence counsel Kelly Goodwin told the court Lawson had a "traumatic" upbringing marked by domestic violence, alcohol abuse and the death of her father.
Mr Goodwin tendered a six-page letter from Lawson and some character references, telling the court Lawson accepted responsibility. Lawson appeared at her plea hearing on a video link from the Townsville Women's Correctional Centre, where she has been remanded for more than two years since voluntarily having her bail revoked.
Cairns District Court Office Manager Jill Johnston Steven Johnston Boutique Maree Johnston Family Bookkeeper Mort Johnston Banana Farm
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