An Adelaide pair who helped scam businesses through an “insidious and hard to detect” cyber hacking program should be jailed for their crimes, a court has heard.

Key points:

  • Jason Lees and Emily Walker are accused of money laundering and deception offences
  • They have both pleaded guilty to what prosecutors described as “serious cyber hacking offences”
  • Prosecutors are seeking jail terms for the pair after their Sydney co-accused was sentenced last week

Jason Bran Lees and Emily Jane Walker have pleaded guilty to dozens of charges including possessing a computer virus with intent to commit a serious computer offence, possessing prohibited documents and dishonest dealings with documents.

The crimes were carried out between July 2018 and February 2020 in Adelaide and New South Wales.

The court has previously heard it involved hacking businesses and organisations for staff data — including names, addresses and birth dates — that was then used to set up “hundreds” of bank accounts where money was deposited.

“The offending is a bit like — and perhaps a poor analogy — but it’s like child exploitation material by computer.

“It’s insidious, it is hard to detect and easy to do.”

Jason Lees and Emily Walker are accused of money laundering and deception offences.(

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Ms Rathbone told the District Court it was not an “easy task” to determine how much money the victims had lost and the total amount was still being assessed.

But she said a prison sentence was “inevitable” for Lees and, while Walker’s offending was less serious, jail time would still be sought.

But Lees’ lawyer, Andy Ey, said his client — who has already spent five months in custody before being released on home-detention bail — didn’t necessarily deserve more time in prison.

“This involved a computer program that would go in and divert a sum of funds,” he told the court.

“The computer program acted somewhat autonomously in that it would target whatever amount the business had in those accounts.

“Sometimes it was a very significant amount but as soon as those larger amounts were attempted to be transferred by this computer program to the other accounts that were created falsely, the bank would freeze on the funds immediately because it was so suspicious.

“It was significant, sophisticated.”

Co-accused sentenced last week

The court heard their offending was less serious than their Sydney co-accused who was last week sentenced to 11 years in jail with a non-parole period of six years and six months.

The co-accused man was arrested by NSW police in Sydney in 2020, and sentenced last week.(

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Mr Ey said that case also involved money laundering millions of dollars into Bitcoin.

The court heard Lees was putting aside about $100 a week from his part-time work for restitution to the victims, and that he was attempting to sell a house he co-owned for further restitution.

“It’s not going to come to a significant sum … but it will amount to something,” Mr Ey told the court.

Walker’s lawyer, Casey Isaacs, told the court her role in the offending amounted to less than $100,000.

Judge Joanne Tracey revoked Lees’ bail due to the seriousness of his offending and remanded Walker on home detention bail.

The matter will return to court in November.