For six years now the Bendigo and Adelaide Bank in Australia has been trying to recover over $3 million in cash stolen by a former bank employee. Kate Jamieson took the money from the financial institution and used the cash to gamble at the Crown Casino. Since 2009, the financial group has been trying to get the money back from the casino but has since walked away from the lawsuit.
The case was just about to head to trail when the bank finally agreed to dismiss the charges. The Crown Melbourne did agree to pay the legal costs of the bank, yet no other payment was mentioned in the court documents.
With the dismissal, the Crown casino can now rest easy. If the bank had won the case, the casino could have been exposed to additional claims by crime victims where money was stolen and later used for gambling at the casino.
The dismissal came with an agreement that included a right of reinstatement and the Bendigo and Adelaide Bank is not stating why they decided to dismiss the case. It seemed odd for the financial institution to dismiss the case since they had just upped the amount owed in the case from just over $1.5 million to just over $3 million. The bank claimed that 95% of the money stolen ended up at the casino from July 2001 to May of 2004.
In the claim, the bank had stated that the Crown shut their eyes to the obvious fact that Jamieson had stolen all or most of the money she was using at the casino. They then extended additional privileges such as drinks and free meals plus accommodation to further encourage her gambling. The Crown Casino has not commented on the court case or how they plan on taking action to ensure gamblers are not using other people’s money during game play. Jamieson earned seven years in prison for stealing the cash with a non-parole time frame of four years.