A man in Sydney, Australia, has been sentenced to two and a half years in prison for taking more than $66,000 while working as an IT support staffer with a third-party company contracted by the Australian National Maritime Museum (ANMM).
The 25-year-old man used his IT position to access the museum’s accounts payable system in order to make several fraudulent purchases, according to a press statement from the Australian Federal Police.
Police alleged that the the man changed details of stored accounts in ANMM’s system to his own and unlawfully obtained the financial information of several individuals and businesses.
The purchases included more than $15,000 on four-wheel-drive upgrades and mechanical work, and more than $20,000 on “high-powered IT equipment.”
After the ANMM identified irregularities in its financial records in November 2022, it reported the fraudulent transactions to the police.
An investigation by a cybercrime operations team identified the suspect of the alleged fraud and an arrest was made earlier this month, according to Australian industry trade publication IT News. The suspect’s laptop, hard drives, and cell phone were also seized.
The man, who was not named by Australian Federal Police, was convicted of three counts: “unauthorised access and modification with intent to commit a serious computer offence,” “dishonestly obtaining or dealing in personal financial information,” and “count of dishonestly obtaining property by deception.”
He will not be eligible for parole for at least 15 months.
“This man exploited his trusted position of employment to fraudulently access and spend thousands of dollars belonging to others for his own benefit,” AFP Detective Superintendent Tim Stainton said in a press statement. “The greedy behaviour in this matter came at the expense of hard-working Australian individuals and business owners.”
News of the sentence was first reported by IT News.
