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A Sydney businesswoman who defrauded the National Australia Bank of millions to fund a lavish lifestyle including decorating her Potts Point terrace and landscaping a Mosman home has been sentenced to a maximum of 15 years in prison.

The fraud, perpetrated by Helen Rosamond with the help of a bank insider, was “breathtaking in its audacity”, District Court Judge Robert Sutherland said on Thursday, and the opulence of the duo’s lifestyles was “stunning”. The loss to the bank was estimated at between $7 million and $9.8 million.

Helen Rosamond outside the Downing Centre District Court last year.Credit: Dean Sewell

Sutherland sentenced Rosamond to a maximum of 15 years in prison with a non-parole period of eight years. Taking into account time already served, Rosamond is first eligible for parole on December 1, 2030.

This was “no temporary dipping-into-the-till crime” but a persistent course of conduct “based on greed rather than need”, Sutherland said. He said Rosamond was motivated in some instances by a desire to demonstrate her financial success and grandiosity.

A NSW District Court jury found Rosamond guilty in November last year of 90 charges relating to the scam, which involved using her North Sydney-based event management company Human Group to bill the bank for extravagant personal expenses disguised as legitimate invoices.

Rosamond’s inflated bills, issued between 2013 and 2017, included kickbacks for Rosemary Rogers, a senior bank staffer who rubber-stamped Rosamond’s invoices. Sutherland noted Rogers and Rosamond referred to each other as “bestie” and “sister from another mother”.

Former senior NAB staffer Rosemary Rogers told the court she became “dependent” on Helen Rosamond.Credit: Sam Mooy

The scam was not detected for years because Rogers, who was chief of staff to then-NAB chief executives Cameron Clyne and Andrew Thorburn, was a trusted and long-time bank employee authorised to approve invoices worth up to $20 million.

Human Group had organised a series of events for the bank including leadership retreats and Rosamond was “well-known and had access to senior executives within the bank”, Sutherland said.

He said Rosamond would create an inflated yearly budget for Human Group that would be approved by Rogers, creating a large pre-paid pool of funds on which the company could draw. NAB was billed for legitimate work as well as “non-NAB” spending.

Rosamond, who was taken into custody in December, spoke cheerfully to her legal team in the Downing Centre District Court in Sydney before her sentence was delivered. The jury found Rosamond guilty in November of 59 counts of giving a corrupt benefit to Rogers and 31 counts of dishonestly obtaining, or attempting to dishonestly obtain, a financial advantage by deception.

Rosamond’s bloated invoices covered $228,747 for an interior designer to furnish her Potts Point terrace, $14,358 on catering for her swanky 40th birthday featuring ice sculptures and singing waiters, $372,611 to landscape her former marital home in Mosman and $86,413 for renovations. Thousands more were spent on a US holiday, artworks, renovations on her catamaran and a car for family members.

An anonymous whistleblower letter alerted NAB to the arrangement between Rosamond and Rogers shortly before Christmas 2017, triggering an internal investigation and, later, police involvement.

Rogers, the star witness in Rosamond’s trial, was sent to jail in 2021 for a minimum of four years and nine months after pleading guilty to a string of offences including 27 counts of corruptly receiving a benefit from Rosamond. She received a discount for giving evidence against her former friend and confidant. Rosamond was “funding a lifestyle that I had”, Rogers told Rosamond’s trial last year.

Sutherland said he accepted Rogers’ evidence that she was unaware of the financial benefits flowing to Rosamond herself.

The Crown submitted that Rosamond “controlled everything, ultimately”, Sutherland said, while Rosamond’s barrister submitted that his client’s culpability was less than that of Rogers. Sutherland said the relationship between the pair was symbiotic and the women were equally culpable.

Rosamond exercised her right to silence and did not give evidence at her trial. A clinical psychologist’s report, tendered in court, said Rosamond now described Rogers as a dangerous, highly toxic and manipulative person who had betrayed her trust and goodwill. Sutherland did not accept this characterisation.

Sutherland said he viewed expressions of remorse made by Rosamond through the psychologist “with a level of considerable reserve” and noted she did not give evidence at her sentencing hearing. But he accepted she was unlikely to reoffend.

The long-time NAB employee received a string of lavish gifts from Rosamond totalling more than $5 million, including $1.5 million for a house, a $159,490 European holiday for six people, a $620,000 US holiday for eight including a private jet, a $29,377 holiday to the Saffire Freycinet resort in Tasmania, a $115,000 boat and a $172,000 BMW.

Rogers told the court it was obvious to her that the bank ultimately picked up the tab for her gifts.

Crown prosecutor Katrina Mackenzie told the jury the arrangement between the pair started small, but “grew and grew” until their “greed, dependence and perhaps arrogance started to contribute to the unravelling of their criminal enterprise and, ultimately, their downfall”.

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