A servo worker has been busted fleecing tens of thousands of dollars during an alleged two-year raid on the till – as her devastated boss reacts.
Peri Hortis, who runs the Saviges Road Fast & Ezy service station in Victoria’s Gippsland region, claims the 35-year-old woman stole more than $43,000 in cash between August 2022 and July 2024.
In CCTV footage from above the register, the worker is seen counting $50 notes, looking to see if anybody was around and then nonchalantly pocketing the cash.
Mr Hortis claims the woman, who worked at his business for four years, had knocked off cash from the till more than 100 times.
He told A Current Affair the woman was able to fly under the radar because she told him she was processing the cash as a lottery payout.
However, the penny dropped about six months ago when Mr Hortis’ accountant warned ‘some things weren’t adding up in my books’.
As he analysed his business records, he discovered there were scratch card payouts of more than $700 in one day.
‘Someone winning $700 scratchies in one day is quite a lot,’ he said.
CCTV footage shows the woman counting out $50 notes before pocketing the cash (pictured)
Peri Hortis, who employed the woman for over four years, says it’s going to take him at least a year to recover from the alleged $43,000 theft
‘I looked back at transactions and video footage for the two weeks that I had and then realised she was doing it every second day.
‘She would have done it over 100 times and it was just over $43,000 in cash.
‘It is a lot of money. I’m heartbroken.’
On a separate occasion, footage shows the woman scanning cigarettes and opening them before processing a scratchie payout to the value of the pack and drinks.
Mr Hortis claimed that when he confronted her, she admitted the alleged theft.
‘She admitted it to me. She said she had to pay for her daughters’ braces and that she was going to pay the money back,’ he said.
‘I told her she’s sacked, give me the keys to the store, you’re out of here.’
Mr Hortis reported the woman’s alleged crimes to the police on July 11, but says little has happened in the three months since.
He chased up the senior constable on the case a fortnight later and was asked to sign paperwork and return it to him, which he did in early August.
‘They thought it was a slam-dunk investigation, but I haven’t heard back from them,’ Mr Hortis said.
Police say they have interviewed the woman as part of an ongoing investigation.
Mr Hortis’ Saviges Road Fast & Ezy service station in Gippsland
Mr Hortis said he had been generous towards the woman, giving her $50 worth of fuel each week and gifting her a new iPhone for Christmas last year.
‘You become friends and family with (staff). They’re not just a number,’ he said.
The woman has since found a new job at a nearby supermarket, but she denied her dishonesty when A Current Affair approached her.
Mr Hortis said it would take him at least a year to recoup his losses.
‘I can’t really employ someone full-time until I replenish that income that I would have paid someone else,’ he said.
‘The dishonesty and the betrayal and the lies is just pathetic.’
