A Lavington woman whose job it was to count and place takings into a floor safe at Lavington's Boomerang Hotel has used wire to grab money bags, stealing more than $40,000.
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Not one cent of the money stolen by Lisa Bakic, a mother of two teenagers, has been recovered.
The whole lot was used to feed Bakic's addiction to poker machines.
Bakic initially denied the allegations after she was arrested by Albury police, Albury Local Court has heard.
But she changed her mind when police played-back CCTV footage that clearly showed her hooking the money bags, then thieving cash.
Bakic, 35, pleaded guilty to a single charge of steal property as a clerk or servant to a value of greater than $15,000.
She ended up taking just over $43,000.
Police said Bakic was now without a job after her employer, the ALH Group, gave her the sack over her offending.
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Bakic began working as the Boomerang's assistant manager in early 2018.
Part of her duties involved counting money and organising banking, "amongst other things".
Magistrate Rodney Brender was told the hotel used currency management service provider Armaguard to securely transport its takings.
Police said it was Bakic's job to put the counted takings into money bags, which went into a slot in a large floor safe in the hotel's office.
The safe could be accessed only by Armaguard officers.
Armaguard went to the hotel on March 15 to collect the latest takings for banking.
"The money was counted by Armaguard," police said, "and an amount of $43,668,50 was found to be missing."
The strict banking procedure was to have the counted money checked-off against a deposit report generated when hotel staff placed money in the safe.
"CCTV footage was examined and the accused is seen to access the safe on a number of occasions, using a piece of wire to effectively fish out parcels of cash from the Armaguard slot in the safe," police said.
"The accused is seen to place cash up her shirt and in her handbag."
Bakic will be sentenced on June 14.
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