A former Wollongong Woolworths employee has been sentenced after she was caught with her "hand in the cookie jar" when she stole money from the store's safe.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Cveta Zulumovski, 42, fronted Wollongong Local Court on Tuesday where she pleaded guilty to a charge of embezzling money as a clerk in 2019.
Agreed facts tendered to court said the Flinders woman starting working at the Wollongong store in 1993 before she was prompted in 2006 to the store's service assistant where she was responsible for balancing the safe, payroll and issuing and collecting funds from the registers.
The documents said the store had been "hemorrhaging money with the registers not balancing" for the past few years and an investigation was launched which ultimately resulted in the Woolworths Group's national investigations partner getting involved.
He started to investigate the large discrepancies in the money before applying for a search warrant to install and monitor a covert camera within the store's safe room from July 2019.
At about 7.30am on August 5, the investigations partner was notified the safe was underbalanced and missing $320. He discovered Zulumovski was the only person who had access to it.
The partner looked at the recording where he saw Zulumovski open the safe, where a number of $50 notes were sitting on the top shelf.
Zulumovski then leaned into the safe with a tray of money and an open hand but as she removed it, her fist was closed.
Zulumovski then walked over to the desk, picked up a tissue, blew her nose and placed the $50 notes into the tissue before putting it in her pocket.
The investigation partner and store managers had a meeting with Zulumovski where she was told the safe was not balancing. She claimed she did not know why.
Zulumovski was told her actions were caught on camera and she became emotional before she admitted stealing the $320.
"Yeah I took the money. I made a mistake. I'm sorry I f***ed up," she told them.
Zulumovski then opened her wallet and handed over $570, telling them that was all the money she had taken before she immediately resigned and left.
Police did not speak to Zulumovski until January 2021 and she was charged.
In court on Tuesday, Zulumovski's lawyer Martin Rowney said his client could provide no explanation for why she stole the money after she had been caught with her "hand in the cookie jar".
He said Zulumovski showed immediate remorse, handed back the money with the incident causing her a great "sense of shame", adding it was an "isolated incident".
"She has significant bewilderment at her own conduct," Mr Rowney said.
However Magistrate Michael O'Brien said Zulumovski was only prompted her to make an admissions after "incontrovertible evidence" was shown to her.
He labelled her actions as a "breach of trust" but noted her conduct appeared to be "aberrant".
Zulumovski was convicted and placed on a community corrections order where she must be of good behaviour for 12 months.
We depend on subscription revenue to support our journalism. If you are able, please subscribe here. If you are already a subscriber, thank you for your support.
Subscribe to our newsletters
