A former Cricket Tasmania employee accused of stealing cash paid at the counter that was intended as Hobart Hurricanes membership and other fees will be assessed for a home detention order.
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Renee Ferguson, 48, appeared in the Hobart Magistrates Court on Thursday charged with multiple counts of stealing from her former employer, which allegedly occurred while she was an administration officer on the front desk at Blundstone Arena in Hobart.
Ms Ferguson, who now lives in Bendigo, appeared in person and was asked to be assessed for a home detention order, which would need to be completed in Tasmania.
Magistrate Michael Daly will give a sentencing indication next week that was likely to include a period of home detention - hence the preemptive assessment - but Ms Ferguson was yet to enter a plea.
The charges stem from an audit carried out by Cricket Tasmania's then-accounting officer after she noticed an apparent discrepancy on the books in late November, 2017.
The court heard CCTV allegedly showed Ms Ferguson on separate occasions sliding cash under her computer monitor, putting it in a drawer, under paperwork and using a back room to place it in her wallet.
Prosecutor Jayson Taws alleged that a common method was to record cash transactions as being from Eftpos, as Ms Ferguson was in charge of daily takings sheets.
Cricket Tasmania alleged the CCTV footage directly showed Ms Ferguson stealing $1942 in total. The court heard she then provided cash back to the Cricket Tasmania, and resigned from the position about a week later. She was charged six months later.
The audit found there was $12,016 worth of missing receipts spanning July to November 2017, but the majority of this could not be directly linked to Ms Ferguson. Prosecutors intended to rely on a "tendency" argument, which defence counsel Greg Barns SC was prepared to vigorously argue against.
Ms Ferguson was also alleged to have given her family a platinum junior Hobart Hurricanes membership valued at $705 and a family membership worth $339, without authority to do so.
Mr Barns requested a sentencing indication, and negotiated with prosecutors over the total amount of alleged stealing that could be linked to Ms Ferguson beyond reasonable doubt.
She was on a suspended sentence when she committed the alleged offending, which could be activated.
A home detention order could not be served in her now-home state of Victoria, and so she would need to return to Tasmania.
Mr Barns said Ms Ferguson had become a "high profile person" in the media for some time, and he described some coverage of her matters as "tawdry". She is seeking almost $1 million in damages from Cricket Tasmania in a separate and unrelated sexual harassment suit in the Federal Court.
Mr Barns said the ongoing media attention had severely impacted Ms Ferguson's mental health.
A home detention assessment is expected to be completed in eight weeks.
The matter will return to the Hobart Magistrates Court next Thursday, when Magistrate Daly will finalise his sentencing indication.
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