Bookkeeper Imprisoned For Embezzling From Owen, Mikey, And Tyler Wright
A New South Wales bookkeeper has been sentenced to more than five years in prison for embezzling $1.5 million from siblings, Owen and Tyler Wright.
Shane Maree Hatton was charged with 749 counts of dishonestly obtaining financial advantage by deception in April 2021 after she was arrested in Vincentia, on the NSW south coast. The 54-year-old, who was a friend of the surfers' mother, Fiona Wright, later pleaded guilty to defrauding the family over a decade, while employed to look after their accounts.
In Wollongong District Court on Thursday, Ms Hatton was sentenced to an aggregate term of five years and six months jail, with a non-parole period of three years. Judge Andrew Haesler also ordered her to pay $647,000 in compensation to the surfers, who grew up at Culburra on the NSW south coast, and their family.
Owen was awarded $326,500, Tyler $262,500, their younger brother Mikey $20,500 and their parents, Fiona and Robert Wright, $37,500.
Two-time world champion Tyler Wright was a client of Ms Hatton (World Surf League)
The family has declined to comment but on Friday a close friend told the ABC, the Wright family were glad the matter had been resolved. "The family are very relieved this chapter has been closed," they said.
Owen Wright won bronze at the Tokyo Olympics last year after recovering from a brain injury sustained while training in 2015. It was the first time the sport had been included in the Olympic schedule.
Shane Hatton, 53, was arrested at her home in Vincentia last year and charged with more than 700 counts of fraud (Supplied: NSW Police)
Two-time world champion, Tyler, had considered putting her career on hold in the wake of her brother's accident at Pipeline in Hawaii.
The 28-year-old was forced to pull out of the World Tour for more than a year after suffering from a crippling virus in 2018.
// AINSLIE DREWITT-SMITH
© Australian Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved.
Comments
Over a 10 year period how did 5 people not see this ...?
One news report said Owen at one stage accused his parents of doing it..
Obviously no one has ever broken your trust. I learnt early when my first employee was stealing cheques and writing them out to herself and putting in false cheque stubbs...really dumb and easy to catch but I was gutted as I had just bought her family Xmas presents and thought I was the world's best boss etc.
Takes a lot of time & effort to put in double checking measures...sometimes you just trust.... like the Wrights
Betrayal of trust is awful. And the closer it comes from, the harder it is to anticipate and the harder it hits.
The big challenge afterwards is to not become a wretched cynic.
Mate - when you start a business, make sure you have dual sign off / a two step approval process for all transactions. When they ask why, just say “it’s good governance” because that’s it it is. You are building a trusted process, that is harder to break (defraude)
Excellent advice for everyone. And with 2FA these days it's a no brainer really.
In another post everyone was talking smack about Yago Dora having a good manager. Yeah, what a waste of money. Haha…
That happened to Clay Marzo too.
Good luck getting any of it
Yeah, how does the lady come up with 600k+?
Probably in $20 a week installments.
Gold!
There was other stuff of interest (to me anyway) in that other news article
Like some of Owen's presentations to the court; that after his head injury he wanted to retire but financially couldn't afford to - is that true, or just playing up the negative impacts to the court?
And that his relationship with his parents remained damaged due to the false accusations he made against them - gosh, imagine falsely suspecting and accusing your parents of stealing from you - bloody horrible
Also - the story basically outlined thta she had admitted - but reading between the lines I was wondering if it was another of these 'admissions' that come about when soneone knows the game is up and it's the best thing they can do for themselves
It's fucked up - and the exception rather than the rule - but more common that makes u feel gr8 about humanity at times
Very hard to believe given he just spent $5m on a luxury villa in Byron and developing a few more. His winnings just from contests over the last decade is close to $800k, then multiple sponsorship deals from half a dozen brands. Unless he was expecting to fully retire for the rest of his life at age 30 and just live off what he made in the previous ten years, then I reckon that bit was put on for the court.
The Wright family is never far from the headlines is it
Hard for a Wright to be wrong?
Double Gold!
Hard to wright a wrong
When you break it down its plain simple theft. She new what she was doing so I’m glad they have thrown the book at her.
Reckon in might be Owen’s shout! :)
ha ha , maybe he could shout his oldies one of those fancy townhouses he's building, to repay the accusations of theft by them
Little bit of spew just entered my mouth. Fancy surfing the best and most successful as you can in world class competitions over the last ten years during the limited window of opportunity at the peak of your fitness and energetic youth, only to have some toerag you have entrusted to look after your finances, fleece you of your winnings. Then, on top of this, she gets ordered to pay you back $600,000+ in weekly amounts of $20 a week because she probably won't have the finances to pay it back in a bulk sum. On top of that, the personal angst and family relationship disruption....that shit makes me angry. Is there ever a sufficient penalty?
I believe she blew most of it on the punt. Although she has apparently paid back $100K before the ruling so maybe she has means or assets to pay substantially more. I hope so because I really hate slimy thieves like that , especially the ones who abuse a position of trust.
bookkeepers notes
365 days x 5yrs = 1825 days in gaol.
1825 / 749 counts of dishonestly = 2.43 days per offence
$1.5 million / 1825 days = $822 per day (& taxpayers costs for 1825 days free housing)
Its generally someone close to you or family that gets you.
Humans......wow !
Prospective boss has only one question for each applicant for his vacant bookkeeper’s position, ‘What do you get when you multiply two by ten?’
The guy who gets the job answers, ‘What do you want it to be?’
Been there.
Peterb, good to see your name on the boards. Wasn’t it you who had been following the ‘Taman Shud’ story for the last 30 years or so, with a stream of writing and a host of possible theories. What do you make of recent developments? Thought of you first thing when I saw it on the telly.
battfink …. Yeah, that surprised everyone, the bloke was from Melbourne, dumped his missus and disappeared. Now it looks like he might have been part of a car-stealing racket. More here tomsbytwo.com.
On a totally different topic, but one that is FUBAR.
How can these animals get away with what they do??
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/scout-leader-set-to-die-in-jail-afte...
Gosh, what ever happened to just doing something nice? You reckon after 700 nasty things you could at least try one good thing? Just imagine it? Surely it would make life more interesting. It’s weird that someone could keep violating someone else’s confidence for so damned long!! Good thing most people are descent- that’s my take home. Lucky most people seem to do good things most of the time, otherwise where would we be?
Earlier before this thread i was thinking if you were one of the Wrights you'd be proud as punch of your genetics and family. Fuck i hate thieves, sociopaths.
Pretty sure you were bagging their Cousin Alex in an earlier post?
Sorry mate i dont know who Alex is. Never said anything about them.I did meet Mikey's photog if that's who you're referring to, i thought he was a top bloke.
We Scream Alone?
Oh ok, had no idea he was there cousin and that wave probably is a slab at a few feet bigger, just think everyone says slab these days for any reef that has half a tube. No offense to Alex everyone seems to be doing it.Slab in my experience is blacks, shark island, cape solander etc.
Unfortunately scumbags are everywhere and what happened to the Wrights is prevalent throughout society in different shapes and forms but all = Fraud.
Fraudsters all have the same basic recipe of building trust through reinforcement by showing you deceivingly or making you believe what they are doing is legitimate.
As Joe public on the side line you can easily say or think “ what idiots, how did they let that happen” but until you have been caught up in a fraud, some that are perpetuated for decades then it can be difficult to understand properly.
One of the most painful and difficult parts of the process is getting them to court and having them charged.
You learn quickly it is a Legal system and not a Justice system with the fraudster being allowed and signed off on by the court judge to use your stolen money in the fraudster bank account to fight you in court. Unbelievable but true!
Never trust anyone else with your hard earned money. That decision can sometimes have far reaching ramifications.
All calculated callous fraudsters need to rot in jail cells for many years. Unused Manus island or some remote hell hole.