Exclusively exposed by ChannelNews in 2021, a former senior Hisense executive who was accused of stealing $3.4 million over several years to feed her gambling addiction, has today been jailed.
Former Customer Service and Call Centre Manager Aphrodite Myron, 58 was earlier today ,sentenced to four years and one month in prison, with a non-parole period of two years and two months.
Sentencing her Judge Nola Karapanagiotidis described her actions as “Sophisticated and prolonged”.
Hisense ended up paying $3,383,56.96 into 35 separate bank accounts set up by Myron under her and her family’s names.
She then wasted the money on online slot machines, holding on to the false hope she could recoup her losses and pay back her debts the court heard.
“Gambling offered you a temporary relief and escape from your circumstances and your chronic distress along with the false hope of recouping your losses and paying back your debts,” the Judge said said.
The actions of the former Call Centre Manager at the Chinese Appliance and TV Company exposed lax procedures and security checks at Hisense, with the Chinese Company holding a phone hook in 2021, up to discuss the breach two years ago, after ChannelNews wrote about the theft following a tip off from senior management still working at the Company.
Aphrodite Myron, 58, stole the money between 2014 to 2021 to fuel her gambling addiction unbeknown by Hisense management who failed to notice they had a problem until someone internally blew the whistle.
When the Police were finally called in, they discovered that the call centre boss had falsified documents with payment details linked to bank accounts in her or her family’s name.
At the same time, she was telling customers that they had no rights to a claim.
Instead, she fraudulently claimed a consumer complaints body had upheld consumer complaints.
In 2019 she told an incoming Chinese managing director who spoke little English that recent laws had changed so that claims could be made retrospectively.
When ChannelNews was first told of the crime Hisense management categorically denied the fraud had taken place.
We also discovered that Hisense Australia had not reported the claimed multimillion dollar fraud at the TV & Appliance Company to external authorities to investigate.When we contacted the Victoria Police Fraud Squad, they claimed that they know nothing of a claimed fraud at the Chinese owned Company.
They also claim that no fraud has been reported to them involving a Hisense employee.
The alleged fraud was initially identified by staff at the Melbourne based Company, who have admitted to major problems with their internal systems.
After the actions of Myron were leaked to ChannelNews, several staff were terminated by Chinese management running the business including former customer service staff.
She was arrested in 2022 and said she had breached her own trust and that of her employer’s.
Myron said her family was not involved and that she gambled all the money at online casinos.
The court heard Myron’s childhood was marked by physical and emotional abuse and that she now had PTSD.
She pleaded guilty to eight counts of obtaining a financial advantage by deception.
