The Tribune

By FARRAH JOHNSON

Tribune Staff Reporter

fjohnson@tribunemedia.net

AN accounts manager who initially denied stealing nearly $200,000 from her place of employment has changed her plea to guilty.

Police said Tabitha Wells, 39, defrauded John Watling’s Distillery of $198,112.35 between February and August 2020.

Last December, she appeared before Magistrate Ambrose Armbrister charged with 12 counts of stealing by reason of employment, two counts of falsification of accounts and a single charge of acquiring the proceeds of crime.

Police said Wells stole the funds from the company’s Royal Bank of Canada and Commonwealth Bank corporate accounts.

They also said she stole $57,185.07 from the distillery’s RBC account sometime between February 4 and 29. They said she stole $10,090.40 from the company’s Commonwealth Bank account between May 10 and 27. Wells was further accused of making false entries into the distillery’s accounting software on two different occasions.

Although she denied the allegations at her first court appearance, at the start of her trial before Magistrate Kendra Kelly on Friday, Wells owned up to the offences and was convicted.

Now Wells’ attorney, Damian Gomez, QC, is in the process of drafting a plea agreement that would see Wells pay back the money she stole while avoiding prison time.

Wells returns to court February 22, 2022 to be sentenced. A probationary report from the Department of Social Services was also ordered to assist Magistrate Kelly with her ruling.