A former bank employee’s life has been “destroyed” by “completely false” allegations that she defrauded several banks out of hundreds of thousands of dollars, a court has heard.
Sara Daizli allegedly opened accounts in fictitious names to defraud St George Bank customers of hundreds of thousands of dollars between February 2016 and December 2018.
Prosecutors allege she diverted money into fake accounts and used the ill-gotten gains to fund a lavish lifestyle.
The 32-year-old is also accused of making fraudulent loan applications to St George and ANZ banks.
He pleaded not guilty to a total of 120 charges, including dealing in the proceeds of crime and 108 counts of dishonestly obtaining a financial advantage by deception.
On Thursday, Daizli’s lawyer, Abigail Bannister, told the court that her client’s life “has been destroyed over the last four years” because of the “completely false” allegations of fraud.
Daizli is due to face trial in the New South Wales District Court next month, but appeared in court this week to argue about the subpoenas issued to Westpac Bank.
The court was told that Westpac, which is now the parent company of Daizli’s former employer St George Bank, has spent countless hours and tens of thousands of dollars tracking down documents requested by the defence.
Sara Daizli’s life has been “destroyed” by “completely false” allegations that she defrauded several banks out of hundreds of thousands of dollars, a court has heard. She is pictured leaving court on Thursday
Westpac’s lawyer, Andrew Byrne, asked the court to set aside parts of the subpoenas that he said were oppressive and constituted an unlawful application of legal process.
He said the bank has been “doing everything possible” to provide the requested documents, but stressed the time and cost involved in searching through the “hundreds of millions of pieces of evidence.”
One of the records Daizli’s lawyer is seeking is a log of staff login details for 19 days when his client is accused of making fraudulent transfers.
Ms Bannister said it was a “very critical document” because prosecutors allege Daizli had obtained the login details of several colleagues and used them to misappropriate funds on 19 occasions.
She told the court that bank policy dictated that employees could be fired immediately for sharing login details and that they were not even allowed to write them down.
Daizli would have had to obtain his colleague’s confidential login details and then monitor the employee from a different room to ensure he was not logged in when he made the fraudulent transactions, Bannister told the court.
She suggested it was possible that St George’s employees had innocently made the transfers after someone broke into the bank and lied about their identity.
Sara Daizli allegedly opened accounts in fictitious names to defraud St George Bank customers of hundreds of thousands of dollars between February 2016 and December 2018
Ms Bannister said the scenario “leaves the door open” to the possibility that Daizli was also an innocent victim of an unknown scammer who tricked her into opening fake accounts.
“It’s absolutely crucial for us to see the logins,” he said.
But Mr Byrne argued it would take an “extraordinary amount of time” to conduct the necessary searches of Westpac’s extensive records because they are not “a straightforward process”.
Judge Nanette Williams ordered Westpac to “take all reasonable steps” to produce the login records.
However, it dismissed a request for a chronological record of transactions carried out by bank staff on the same days, calling it “too broad”.
Ms Bannister also requested a record of high-performing employees at St George Bank during Daizli’s three-year tenure as customer service specialist.
Judge Williams ordered Westpac to file the documents by August 19, dismissing Ms Bannister’s argument that eight weeks had passed since Westpac first said it would take 10 days to file the documents.
“I don’t care, Ms. Bannister. What I care about is getting the material to you… as soon as possible,” the judge said.
The 32-year-old (pictured on Thursday) is also accused of making fraudulent loan applications to St George and ANZ banks.
Judge Williams dismissed other defense requests, including one for copies of investigators’ interviews with staff members in connection with the fraud, as being too broad.
He ordered the parties to return to court on August 19 so that Westpac could report on its progress in producing the approved documents.
“This trial is not going to be derailed by subpoena issues,” the judge said.
“This will take place in September.”
Daizli is being held on bail under strict conditions, including a $1.05 million surety bond to ensure he appears in court when required.
He also faces civil proceedings brought by Westpac Bank in connection with his alleged fraud.
