A HORSHAM woman is fighting allegations she stole more than $4000 from her employer.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Colleen Treloar, 55, appeared at Horsham Magistrates' Court on Tuesday and Wednesday. She pleaded not guilty to eight charges in relation to four alleged offences that occurred between September 2016 and December 2016.
The court heard that Treloar was the manager of Coles Liquorland, Horsham at the time the alleged offences took place.
Treloar asked Magistrate Ronald Saines to accept her application to make her case a jury trial, but Mr Saines refused.
Police prosecutor Senior Constable Belinda Ryan read out the summary of charges to the court. The court heard that Treloar was arrested in December 2017 and charged. Her bail was granted.
The prosecution alleged Treloar made false refunds at Coles Liquorland using her personal credit cards over four separate occasions.
Senior Constable Ryan said it was alleged that on September 20, 2016 the accused used her own credit card to make a false refund of $794.
On December 12, 2016, it was alleged the accused attended work while on sick leave and used her personal credit card to make a false refund of $2340.
On December 13, it was alleged she made a false refund to her personal credit card of $440. On December 20, it was alleged she made a false refund to her personal credit card of $548.
The prosecution called on four witnesses during the evidence hearing. Two were Coles Liquorland staff members who were employed at the same time as Treloar.
The first witness, Terry Brauer, said he attended work on December 13, 2016 and noticed sales had been "down" on December 12. The court heard that Mr Brauer printed off a list of all transactions from the previous day, which included refunds.
"I discovered the sales were a third of a normal Monday. I went through the list and saw a refund of almost $2500 and saw the refund had been done by Colleen. It's a large amount to be refunded," he said.
The court heard that two receipts are printed when refunds are made via an EFTPOS machine. One receipt is given to the customer and the other is kept by the store.
Mr Brauer said it was store policy for an employee to write their name and reason why the refund was made on the receipt, and place the receipt in a cash register. He said he found no receipt for the refund.
The court heard that Mr Brauer did a stock count on December 14 and discovered that two lines were missing. The lines missing were for 10 slabs of Carlton Dry bottles and eight slabs of Jim Bean and Cola cans.
The second witness, Fiona Jones, told the court that in December 2016 she heard a conversation between Treloar and Coles Liquorland area manager Michael Leehane. Mrs Jones heard Treloar tell Mr Leehane that she wasn't getting paid her full weekly wage.
Mr Leehane also gave evidence. He said Treloar took three months leave from either late August or early September to recover from knee surgery.
Mr Leehane said Treloar only told him the day before the surgery that she needed three months off work. The court heard that Treloar wasn't being paid her full wage because she had exhausted her leave entitlements.
Mr Leehane said he became aware of the disputed transaction after receiving an email from Coles' confidential employee incident hotline. He said Treloar resigned on December 29 via a text message.
Horsham police Detective Senior Constable David Richardson provided the court with CCTV footage evidence of the alleged offences.
The court viewed three of the four alleged offences, while the fourth was viewed at the Horsham Police Station by the Mr Saines, the prosecution and the defence due to technical difficulties.
The footage from December 12 showed Treloar not wearing a work uniform. It also showed her retrieving an item or items from her bag, collecting a slab of Jim Beam and Cola cans, and making a transaction. It then showed Treloar removing the slab from the counter, and putting an item or items into her bag.
Detective Senior Constable Richardson alleged the item or items were Treloar's credit card and a receipt from the transaction. He noted that all footage of the transactions in question were made when no other staff member was present.
He also said police had obtained the stores' transaction refund report and Treloar's bank statements.
"The credit card numbers on the refund transaction report used for the transactions in question are identified as the same as the accused's credit card numbers," he said.
"The only other thing of interest is that there was a transaction of $747 made at Premix King, Horsham which was made three days prior to the September 20 incident where it is alleged $794 was refunded into the accused's account."
The defence did not call any of its own witnesses. Treloar was not called by either the prosecution or defence to make a statement.
Defence counsel John Lavery argued in his closing submission that reasonable doubt was possible. He argued that the court had only heard evidence for the alleged transaction of $2340.
"There has been a transfer of funds into the accused's account, but you do not know that it was dishonest," he said.
Mr Lavery argued that Treloar had made a false entry and said there was no proof that the other three transactions in question weren't genuine.
Senior Constable Ryan said the prosecution was confident it had provided the court with enough evidence to prove Treloar's actions were dishonest.
"Footage has shown that these transactions in question always occurred without the presence of other employees; it also shows clear footage of the accused disposing or hiding receipts. There is no evidence that stock was brought back to the store nor was stock visible in the footage," she said.
Mr Saines said his judgement was reserved.
Treloar will next appear at Horsham Magistrates' Court on May 14 for a judgement and possible sentence hearing. Her bail was extended until this date.
While you're with us, you can now receive updates straight to your inbox twice weekly from the Wimmera Mail-Times. To make sure you're up-to-date with all the news from across the Wimmera, sign up below.