Subramaniam v R

The Applicant's Subjective Case 37The applicant was born in Fiji of Indian parents on 15 May 1969. She grew up with her family in Nadi before emigrating to Australia in 1977. Her parents are both retired. She has two older sisters both of whom are married with children and one younger brother, married with one child. Her parents continue to reside in Blacktown. 38The applicant met her husband shortly after commencing employment at ING. He was also an accountant with the firm. They married in 1992. In about 2006 the applicant's husband left ING to work for a subsidiary company in North Sydney. The applicant and her husband enjoy an ongoing supportive relationship. 39The applicant was educated to HSC standard following which she attended TAFE where she obtained her diploma in accountancy. After a few casual jobs, the applicant joined ING in 1989, initially as an accounts clerk for about five or six years, then as an assistant accountant for 10 years. She was promoted to financial accountant for a further three years. When her husband left the position of senior financial accountant the applicant took that position in 2006. She initially supervised four staff, which was later reduced to two. 40The applicant's duties generally involved payroll accounting, directors' fees, reconciliations and accounts payable. The applicant's former senior manager left the company in about 2008 and was replaced by a new senior manager who failed to communicate adequately with the applicant. According to the applicant, her senior manager's attitude towards the department, the applicant's work and that of her staff engendered in her a high degree of stress. She wanted redundancy but was never offered it. According to the applicant, her salary was not as great as that of her husband when he occupied the same position. Ultimately, her senior manager reduced her staff to one over the applicant's objections. 41The applicant disclosed a history of sexual abuse by her paternal grandfather in Fiji and in Australia. The abuse was said to have occurred over a number of years from about the age of 7 to about the age of 12. The abuse stopped when her grandparents moved to Melbourne. The abuse was constituted by oral sex and vaginal digital penetration. The applicant did not tell her parents, although she did tell her husband prior to their marriage. Her husband suggested that she consult a psychologist in Macquarie Street. The applicant attended on a number of occasions but discontinued when she found the sessions too difficult. 42In addition, the applicant said that she had been subjected to sexual abuse by one of the senior managers in ING over a number of years. The applicant claimed that the senior manager had sexual intercourse with her on a number of occasions and that she complied with his wishes because she was afraid that her husband would suffer if she did not. In fact, the applicant's husband, the applicant and the senior manager (who was a close friend of the applicant's husband) previously engaged in group sexual activity during the applicant's husband's employment at ING. Sexual activity between the applicant and the senior manger continued after the applicant's husband left the company, unbeknown to him. During this period of time she felt humiliated and shamed and became immensely depressed. 43The applicant initially attempted to explain her offending in part by reference to the appearance of a number of Indian men outside the ING building in about 2004 who engaged her in conversation. These Indian men told her that they wanted to change her future and spiritual path and that they were feeding hungry people in India. She said that they included Sheiks who wore turbans and who were gurus. She said that they would come 3 to 4 times a year but in different groups. They would call her at work and she would go downstairs to meet them. They had various names and she would sit with them for 5 to 10 minutes, talking. She began to give them money of her own, but after a few months she gave them money fraudulently acquired from other accounts. She felt as if their needs were greater than her own. Over time they started asking for more money and the applicant felt threatened and intimidated by them. It is not suggested that these demands were directly linked to the applicant's escalating frauds after 2004. 44According to a psychologist, Anita Duffy, the applicant's extravagant spending provided her with a sense of importance and self respect. The applicant's relationships with the staff of the retail outlets allowed her to escape the stress and despair that she felt in the workplace. 45The applicant was examined a number of times by Drs Westmore and Allnutt. To both of these psychiatrists and to a psychologist, the applicant provided further details regarding the visits of the Indian men, their appearance and the nature of their demands. Doctors Westmore and Allnutt concluded that the applicant's account of these interactions was not typical of a psychosis, rather they were indicative of pseudo-hallucinations suggestive of a schizo typal personality trait. The applicant was "likely manifesting depressive symptoms of variable severity during the period of the offending." Otherwise, the applicant did not manifest any major medical problems. 46In Dr Allnutt's report of 4 October 2011, he described the applicant as manifesting "relatively inflexible and pervasive personality traits that .. caused significant impairment in her social and occupational functioning; she does not fall into any particular personality diagnostic category, but does manifest a number of traits from various categories of personality disorder". Dr Allnutt confirmed that he considered schizo typal personality traits as a possibility given her description of her experiences with certain religious people that she met. Predominately, the applicant manifested the combination of borderline and dependent personality traits. 47In relation to the applicant's interactions with the Indian men, Dr Allnutt thought that they could be pseudo-psychotic symptoms derived from her personality disorder, or a transient psychotic episode or an actual experience of individuals that the applicant met and "misperceived", or that they were a fabrication on her part. Dr Allnutt was unable to determine which of these applied. 48The applicant's sexual abuse in childhood was considered material in the development of the applicant's personality disorder. According to Dr Allnutt's evidence during the sentencing proceedings, there was on the balance of probabilities a causal relationship between the applicant's personality disorder and the offending. 49That there was such a relationship was not disputed by the Crown. The only contentious aspect was the extent to which the sentence ought be ameliorated to take account of that factor.