Alex Turner-Cohen wrote this.

It is from ABC Newcastle.

The topic is crime in accounting.

This was on Wednesday, July 22, 2026, at 6:22 pm.

It was updated at 6:43 pm.

Narelle Labuts is outside court with her lawyer.

Here is a short version:

An accountant from Newcastle named Narelle Labuts has been jailed for fraud.

She used her job to take almost $880,000, which she said she lost gambling.

What happens next?

Labuts will be in jail for three and a half years.

An accountant who worked with IGA stores has been jailed for stealing $878,000.

Narelle Labuts, 61, worked with a company that owns IGA stores.

She was fired in 2021 after a bank found a strange transaction.

Labuts hid her actions by using white font on 522 transactions over four years.

In 2024, police charged her with getting money by deception.

Labuts said she was guilty.

Today, she was sentenced to three and a half years in jail.

The judge said her crime started small but got bigger and more planned.

The judge said people who commit fraud must be punished.

Narelle Labuts was fired after a strange transaction was found.

Labuts only returned a little of the stolen money.

Here are some helplines for gambling problems.

Labuts said she was addicted to gambling and most of the money went to poker machines.

She did not know what happened to the rest of the money.

Labuts said she knew what she did was wrong but hoped to win big.

She said she was very sorry and had broken the trust of her employer.

Narelle Labuts said she gambled most of the money.

She has been working as a bookkeeper since then.

She will tell her future employers about her conviction.

Her lawyer said she is getting help for her gambling problem.

Labuts said she got help for her addiction before she was caught.

She can get out of jail in July 2028.

See more news from ABC.

Practice Listening