Former Flight Centre employee jailed for stealing $40,000 from Canberra branch
Justin Dion Appleton used fake medical records to delay his sentence hearing after stealing money from his workplace. (ABC News: Ian Cutmore)
In short:
A former Flight Centre worker has been sentenced to jail for stealing nearly $40,000 from the travel agency's Canberra City branch.
Justin Dion Appleton appeared in court after using fake medical records to delay his hearing, which had led to a warrant for his arrest.
What's next:
He received a sentence of four years in jail, with a non-parole period of two years.
A former Flight Centre employee who stole almost $40,000 from the Canberra City branch and lied repeatedly to delay his sentencing, has broken down in tears in the ACT Supreme Court today.
Justin Dion Appleton, 39, had pleaded guilty to two charges of theft and one charge of burglary after stealing cash from the branch where he worked as a sales consultant in 2019.
He was sentenced to four years in jail, with a non-parole period of two years, backdated to August.
The court heard Appleton stole more than $22,000 in cash from a secure drawer at the back of the premises while he was an employee.
Documents show 11 occasions where Appleton reversed a customer's cash transactions and replaced them with BPAY or AMEX receipts — but that money was never received by Flight Centre.
Appleton resigned in December 2019, but accessed the branch after-hours on at least six occasions in 2020, stealing an additional $17,000 to support what he described in police interviews as an "out of control" gambling habit.
Appleton was caught when a former colleague saw him going into the office and alerted management.
He pleaded guilty to burglary and theft offences in June 2023.
Further charges of perverting the course of justice and perjury were added in August this year, after Appleton provided the court with numerous false medical certificates and lied under oath in an affidavit in an attempt to delay his sentencing.
A warrant was issued for his arrest this year and he was extradited from South Australia to the ACT, where he has been in custody since August 11.
Offender's repeated lies led to harsher punishment
Court documents show Appleton emailed the court multiple fake medical certificates purportedly from the Royal Flying Doctor Service, Royal Adelaide Hospital and multiple general practitioners.
He appeared in the ACT Magistrates Court in 2024 via video link, where he falsely swore the medical certificates were genuine, despite repeated warnings from the court that providing false evidence was a crime.
A day after Appleton made these claims, he sent an email to a prosecutor stating that he had paid $500 in Bitcoin for two fake medical documents, and had then lied under oath.
Despite the admission, Appleton continued to provide fake documents to the court, including one which claimed he had fallen from a retaining wall and injured his back and leg.
In a further attempt to adjourn the matter, Appleton accused his own lawyer of being uncontactable on 33 occasions, and remarked that he had "lost faith in his representation".
Appleton's lawyer, Aaron Kernaghan, denied his client's claim that he had attempted to contact him 33 times.
Chief Justice Lucy McCallum described Appleton's actions as "a campaign of dishonesty".
"In a small court such as this, every hearing day is precious," she said.
"The time wasted by the offender's conduct not only delayed his own sentence, but also others.
"In the result, all that he has achieved is to prolong his own anxiety and expose himself to greater punishment."
The court also heard Appleton had sent an email to the chambers of the Chief Justice, threatening to take his matter "as far as he could", including to the Attorney-General and the media.
Sentence 'entirely fair and unimpeachable'
Chief Justice McCallum said she accepted Appleton had shown some remorse, but her assessment of his prospects of rehabilitation were "guarded".
"I accept that he plainly has some very lovely qualities, but I saw a different side of the offender in correspondence with my chambers," Chief Justice McCallum said.
"It does suggest the need for the court to be cautious in his claims to have rehabilitated himself."
The court heard Appleton had made 192 repayments to Flight Centre since June 2020, but as part of his sentence he was ordered to repay the remaining $19,816.
Outside court today, Mr Kernaghan said the sentence handed to his client was entirely appropriate.
"As you saw, my client was very distressed in court — he has a lot of baggage that he brings to this matter," he said.
"He's grateful to her Honour the Chief Justice, that she took into account that baggage as mitigation on his sentence … a sentence which I must say was entirely fair and unimpeachable."
Appleton will be eligible for parole in August 2027.