A TASMANIAN woman was on the IVF program and taking a course of drugs that made her act irrationally when she defrauded her employer, a court was told yesterday.
Tanya Jan Woolley was was depressed and trying to get pregnant, her lawyer Jim Wilkinson told the Hobart Magistrates Court.
He said the drugs caused the 27-year-old to suffer problems consistent with menopause, including irrational behaviour.
Mr Wilkinson said the crimes Woolley committed were irrational and carried out while she was on the IVF program.
Woolley, of Conlans Rd, Huonville, had been employed as a law clerk at Huonville law firm Baker Tierney and Wilson.
Between July 2002 and June last year she made more than 200 claims for reimbursement for money she had not spent.
The claims included travel, phone calls, parking, entertainment, food, gifts and overtime.
Woolley pleaded guilty yesterday to a raft of charges relating to dishonestly acquiring a financial advantage. The offences involved a total of $7720.
Mr Wilkinson said Woolley's condition at the time of her offences was made worse by depression.
"The defendant can't explain why she committed the crimes," he said.
"She did not need the money."
Mr Wilkinson said Woolley was depressed about being unable to conceive and had been through the IVF program five times.
The program was unsuccessful and Woolley and her husband had begun looking into adoption, he said.
Mr Wilkinson said Woolley felt guilty about what she had done and felt she had let herself and her family down.
He said she now felt uncomfortable walking down the street in Huonville because she knew people in the small community were talking about her.
Woolley and her husband were now looking at moving away from the area.
Magistrate Michael Hill said he would sentence Woolley on May 13 and continued her bail.
Woman blames IVF for her crime!
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) but someone must have come up with the idea, and from the sounds of it the silly cow herself sounds far too stoopid to come up with such a defense!
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