Jail for Perth woman who stole $1.2 million from her employers

A woman who siphoned more than $1.2 million from two small businesses because she liked shopping, enjoying coffee with friends and having “nice things” has been jailed for more than six years.

Lynette Alison Corrie, 56, began her role as an administration manager for window manufacturer Excell Decor and Hardware just weeks before she started transferring cash from the business into her own bank account – stealing almost $700,000 between 2009 and 2014.

After the small family-owned business cash ran into cash-flow problems and went into voluntary administration in mid-2014, Corrie started another job with plumbing and electrical business Eltech Services, where it took her just nine days to start pilfering again.

From that company, by disguising transfers as payments to legitimate creditors, she took more than $500,000 in dozens of transactions from late 2014 until she was confronted by two company directors in June last year.

When asked about the motivation behind the stealing, Corrie confessed to her crimes, telling the directors “she liked to go out shopping, have coffee with friends and have nice things”.

It was not until…