An Australian woman was sentenced Tuesday after faking a resume and “glowing” references in order to land herself a job that would pay her 270,000 Australian dollars, or 185,000 U.S. dollars, annually.
The woman, Veronica Hilda Theriault, was successful in her quest and started her job working as a chief informations officer for the Australian regional government in 2017. She was found out and fired about one month later, according to CNN.
Theriault was charged with deception, dishonesty and abuse of public office in September 2017. She was sentenced Tuesday to 25 months in jail — only 13 of which are eligible for parole — after pleading guilty to all charges, according to Fox.
During the sentencing, District Court Judge Michael Boylan told the court that Theriault’s application consisted of illegitimate references and falsely enhanced work history.
“That CV led to you being interviewed for the job — you supplied that document to the Department of Premier and Cabinet and (it) is the basis for dishonestly dealing with documents,” he said.
Boylan also discussed how, upon being called by recruiters, Theriault impersonated one of the references she had supplied in her application.
“She gave glowing feedback at your performance, but in fact you were impersonating Ms. Best,” Boylan said. “The real Ms. Best had not given you a reference.”
Although Theriault took similar actions for jobs in both 2012 and 2014, according to The Sydney Morning Herald, her defense team claimed that she was under certain circumstances which caused her to take these actions, and that they were “unlikely to be repeated.”