Charity volunteer uncovers jet-setting boss' half a million dollar fraud
A jet-setting charity boss drained half a million dollars from the community group she was in charge of in a breathtaking decade-long deception that took her to Disneyland and New York.
Angela Stathopoulos will be back on the streets by the end of the year after being thrown behind bars for six months.
Charity volunteers who uncovered her deceit have slammed the sentence.
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The charity boss drained half a million dollars from the community group she was in charge of in a decade-long deception. Nine
From 2010, the mother-of-two was in charge of the Prahran Community Learning Centre in Melbourne, now called Prahran Place Neighbourhood Centre.
While the group survived on a shoestring budget, Stathopoulos was taking home a six-figure salary, while also draining thousands from the group's bank account.
She used charity funds to purchase lavish overseas holidays to places including Disneyland, New York, Universal Studios and Hawaii.
When accountant Maggie Burke began volunteering at the centre several years ago, she said she noticed it "looked very rundown and no money was being spent on it".
When she eventually got access to the charity's bank account, she was blown away by the rort.
"There was significant spending on personal items like airfares and fashion and style consultants."
The charity uncovered 4800 fraudulent transactions, which were handed over to police.
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Victoria Police Detective Sergeant Lisa Herbert said officers discovered 83 per cent of the transactions made by the charity while Stathopoulos was at the helm were not for legitimate purposes.
"She was creating false cheques, she was creating documentation with letterheads on it to keep it all above board," Herbert said.
"When you're in a position of power and within a position of trust within a charity ... to be taking from that and those people that need it, it really is one of the lowest of lows."
Stathopoulos pleaded guilty to 10 counts of obtaining financial advantage by deception in the County Court of Victoria.
She was jailed for three years, with two-and-a-half years of that sentence suspended, meaning she will only spend six months behind bars.
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