A former Adelaide Brighton Cement manager has been found guilty of deceiving the company out of millions of dollars to benefit one of its customers.

Key points:

  • Glenda Ivy Burgess was found guilty of multiple deception and dishonesty charges
  • A judge found there was “no evidence” of seeking personal gain
  • Her former employer welcomed the verdict

The jury of four men and eight women took just over four hours to find Glenda Ivy Burgess — who was an accounts manager at Adelaide Brighton Cement — guilty, in a majority verdict, of nine counts of deception and nine counts of dishonest dealing with documents.

The 63-year-old, from Hillbank, faced a trial in the South Australian District Court after pleading not guilty to all 18 counts.

During the trial, the court heard one of the company’s customers — Concrete Supply — only paid $20 million for $32 million worth of cement between 2009 and 2017.

Prosecutor Peter Longson told the jury Ms Burgess hid Concrete Supply’s debts from her own employer, increased their credit limits and had created several large manual entries benefiting Concrete Supply.

“Police have conducted enquiries — they don’t show any contact between the defendant and people at Concrete Supply,” Mr Longson told the court earlier this month.

“Why the defendant has taken these steps to transfer debt to allocate other customers’ monies to Concrete Supply, to raise Concrete Supply’s credit limit without a request or permission and why they weren’t included in the monthly debtor’s report … the prosecution can’t say.”

Mr Longson said Concrete Supply was not complicit in the alleged crime.

The court heard there was no evidence Burgess had sought personal gain.(

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But, during the trial, Burgess’s lawyer Stephen Apps told the jury it was not a question of whether Concrete Supply had benefited — but whether they had benefited dishonestly due to Ms Burgess’ actions.

“Was she unhappy at work? There’s no evidence of that, no evidence she’d been reprimanded by her boss.

“Why would she have picked that business with a view to dishonestly advancing them that benefit? It does only defy common sense, there is no link.”

The prosecutor applied for Burgess’s bail to be revoked following the verdict ahead of an “inevitable term of imprisonment” but Judge Adam Kimber remanded her on bail to face court again in November.

“One of the issues … that will be important in sentencing is why this took place,” Judge Kimber.

Mr Apps told the court his client would consider appealing the verdict and, outside court, said they were disappointed with the outcome.

In a statement, Adelaide Brighton Cement welcomed the decision.

“Adbri takes its compliance with financial controls very seriously,” it said.

“We regularly update our risk management systems and processes, and all team members are subject to an employee code of conduct.”