Bookkeeper admits defrauding $2.8m from farming family

As a pioneering Far North Queensland farming family battled cyclones, floods and an outbreak of Panama disease, a trusted employee was secretly stealing millions of dollars behind their backs.

The Johnston family of Tully, south of Cairns, thought of Michelle Kathleen Lawson as their friend and devoted bookkeeper.

But the District Court in Cairns heard Lawson, 53, used her trusted position to fund a "lavish" lifestyle through payments to her own bank account and those of her husband and son.

As members of the Johnston family started new businesses, Lawson would begin defrauding them, hiding payments on the books under the names of false employees, the court heard.

Lawson pleaded guilty to seven counts of fraud, spanning a six-year period and totalling about $2.8 million.

The court heard the former justice of the peace and one-time treasurer of the local business chamber spent the money on horses, cars, holidays, property, her own business and extra tuition for her children.

'Felt like a death'

Lawson's crimes have devastated the Johnstons, who invited her to their weddings and once congratulated her for buying a clothing boutique with her sisters, unaware their money helped fund it.

In a victim impact statement, Jill Johnston, 81, recounted how she thought a family meeting at her home in June 2023 was to sign papers for a succession plan.

Instead, the matriarch was told what Lawson, who ran the family businesses' finances for 18 years, had done.

"It has felt in many ways like a death," Mrs Johnston's statement said.

"I carry a deep sense of guilt that I did not detect the fraud.

"I checked the bank statements and asked questions, but still I did not see it."

The court heard Lawson wanted to return to work soon after her son's birth, so Mrs Johnston arranged for a cot to be placed in the business's air-conditioned office.

Lawson also declined an offer to have someone cover her while she took her daughter on the horse show circuit, the court heard.

"She insisted she would keep doing the wages herself because she did not want to have to fix someone else's mistake," Mrs Johnston said in her statement.

"I now understand why she did not want anyone else looking at her work.

"In the more than three years since this has come to light, Michelle has never apologised to me or my family."

Mrs Johnston's children Paul, Anthony, Stephen and Melanie also made statements outlining how Lawson's betrayal had generational consequences.

The court heard Lawson cost the family the chance to employ more staff, pay for machinery and chemicals outright, and stymied plans to buy a neighbouring property.

"It's a bitter pill to swallow as I view that farm every day on my way to work," Paul Johnston's statement said.

Stephen Johnston said the family resolved to take civil action to recover money from Lawson, who discussed the hardships of farming while skimming from the businesses.

"We owed it to my mother and the life's work of my late father [Mort] not to let what was taken simply disappear."

Lawson appeared from jail

The court heard the Johnstons managed to recover almost $1.5 million through civil action, but the legal fees and forensic accounting to do so cost about $500,000.

Defence counsel Kelly Goodwin told the court Lawson had a "traumatic" upbringing marked by domestic violence, alcohol abuse and the death of her father.

Mr Goodwin tendered a six-page letter from Lawson and some character references, telling the court Lawson accepted responsibility.

Lawson appeared at her plea hearing on a video link from the Townsville Women's Correctional Centre, where she has been remanded for more than two years since voluntarily having her bail revoked.

Judge Joshua Treviño KC is due to sentence Lawson on Wednesday.