15 years’ jail for woman who defrauded NAB of millions

The District Court of NSW has sentenced Helen Mary Rosamond, the former director of event management company Human Group Pty Ltd, to an aggregate term of 15 years’ imprisonment (with a non-parole period of eight years) for her role in stealing millions of dollars from National Australia Bank (NAB) over a period of five years.

The case, which was first brought to light in 2019, involved both Ms Rosamond and a former NAB chief of staff Rosemary Rogers (who was sentenced to eight years’ imprisonment in 2021) and found that the duo had worked together in a scheme to defraud NAB for their own personal enrichment.

According to the sentencing documents, Ms Rosamond’s event company had been retained to organise and manage events and functions for the National Australia Bank over a period of approximately 12 years.

However, it was found that Ms Rosamond would submit invoices to Ms Rogers that were over-inflated and involved transactions unrelated to NAB.

These fraudulent invoices were found to have related to the acquisition of goods and services, including cars, interior decorating services, the purchase of artworks, overseas holidays, and boats.

This went undetected for several years as Ms Rogers had a delegated authority to approve expenditure up to $20 million and the invoices were issued without supporting documentation from third-party suppliers so that there was no ability for crosschecking within NAB.

In total, the fraudulent transactions involved were found to be in excess of $19 million.

The benefits provided by Ms Rosamond to Ms Rogers were found to have exceeded $5.5 million while Ms Rosamond was found to have obtained financial benefits for her advantage in excess of $9 million.

The ultimate loss sustained by NAB was estimated between approximately $7 million and $9.8 million.

Ms Rosamond’s trial extended over a period of approximately four months between August and November 2022 and a jury found that Ms Rosamond was guilty with respect to 59 counts of providing a corrupt benefit, 29 counts of dishonestly obtaining a financial advantage, and two counts of attempting to obtain a financial advantage.

Sentencing was handed down on Thursday (20 July) by the District Court of NSW. The sentence and non-parole period have been backdated to commence on 2 December 2022.

She will be eligible for parole on 1 December 2030. The additional term of seven years will expire on 1 December 2037.

While handing down the sentence, Justice Sutherland noted that the “length and breadth of the fraudulent activity carried out pursuant to this joint enterprise was breathtaking in its audacity”.

“The extravagance of their spending with the money fraudulently obtained and the opulence of the lifestyles they both pursued was stunning,” the judge said.

Noting the sentencing, NAB’s group executive, legal and commercial services, Sharon Cook, commented: “NAB is grateful for the efforts of the NSW Police and the DPP in investigating and prosecuting Ms Rosamond for her criminal activity.

“We are pleased the criminal proceedings have successfully concluded.

“NAB acknowledges its prior failures in not having sufficient controls and processes. After we became aware of the fraud, we overhauled our controls and processes, including reducing expense delegations and introducing additional checks on expenses.

“The issue was first reported to us by a whistleblower and NAB thanks them for coming forward and alerting us to the fraud. NAB has zero tolerance for criminal activity. Where criminal conduct is identified, such as in this case, we refer it to the police.”

Last month, NAB obtained a civil judgement against Ms Rosamond, the Human Group and a related entity to recover some of the proceeds of the fraud.

[Related: Former NAB chief of staff jailed for fraud]