A 73-year-old woman found guilty of swindling more than $270,000 from elderly victims has been sentenced to at least five years in jail, with the judge saying the fraudster lacked “contrition” over her “deceit and manipulation”.
Patricia Evans was sentenced in South Australia’s District Court on Wednesday after pleading guilty to two counts of theft and 19 counts of aggravated theft between May 2010 and August 2018.
She was sentenced to eight years and four months behind bars with a non-parole period of five years.
The sentence was backdated to May 2022, when Evans was first taken into custody, meaning she will remain behind bars until at least 2027.
Prosecutor Peter Salu previously told the court that Evans was a “con artist” who stole from her victims over a period of nine years, earning “more than a judge of this court for many of those years”.
In sentencing, Judge Michael Durrant told the court Evans had stolen up to $4.2 million from three victims — but said the charges before the court only related to a total of $272,463.
Judge Durrant said he did not accept that Evans said she was remorseful and found it to be “hollow”.
“You did not stop until you were arrested and your actions involved multiple acts and decisions to offend — building on previous acts of deceit and manipulation,” he said.
“The impact of your offending has been vast and profound on your victims; it has reached well beyond them also to impact their family and their friends.
“I consider for several reasons your expressions of contrition and remorse to be hollow and that you lack insight into what you have done.”
‘Tangled in a web of deceit’
The court heard Evans was on a disability pension and bankrupt at the time of her crimes, and Judge Durrant said she had “given no proper explanation for your offending”.
“You seek to deflect your actions by saying it was to help … and that it was beyond your control and you got tangled in a web of deceit,” he said.
Judge Durrant also said Evans had not had the “decency” to say where the victim’s money went, which was “consistent with your complete lack of co-operation at all with your trustee in bankruptcy in over nearly 19 years and over the entire lengthy period of this offending”.
“Your lack of contrition and insight as I have found and all the circumstances noted cause me to conclude you have poor prospects of rehabilitation and that you are at high risk of reoffending,” he said.
“The community, particularly the elderly and the vulnerable, continue to need to be protected from you.”
