Veronica Hilda Theriault, a 46-year-old Australian woman, faked her resume to land a plush and high paying Australian government job, has been sentenced to prison by the court for lying about her skill sets and abusing the public office. She applied for the position of Chief Information Officer and the role came with a high annual salary of 270,000 Australian dollars (US$185,000).
The court heard that she submitted a fraudulent resume to the government with false and misleading information relating to her education and previous employment. After her interview, she herself acted as her previous employer during the online reference check, in which she "gave glowing feedback" about her own performance.
Veronica was then appointed to the position of CIO in the Australia government and joined work for a month earning about 33,000 Australian dollars ($22,500) before being fired for being dishonest and unethical. The court sentenced her to one year in prison with a 25-month sentence and a non-parole period for a year.
She also used fake profile pictures on LinkedIn
Apart from using a fake resume, the woman also used fake pictures on her LinkedIn account. For a few months, she was seen using the picture of supermodel Kate Upton as her LinkedIn profile photo and surprisingly, the officials who hired her had no idea who Kate Upton was.
Fake resume and profile pictures aside, suspicions grew in the department when she hired her own brother for a higher role, despite him lacking the qualifications to perform the role. Her brother had no idea how to go about his duty and this raised concerns in the department causing officials to doubt his certifications and experience.
Veronica's mental health deteriorates after taking the position
In just a month after faking and taking the position of Chief Information Officer, Veronica's mental health started to deteriorate as she didn't know how to go about her work and found it had to perform. That is when the department found out about her illegal activity and fired her and her brother with no notice.
The judge called it a serious offence
During the sentencing, Judge Michael Boylan called Veronica's acts a ''serious offence'' before slapping her with a one-year jail sentence. "You fraudulently obtained employment for which you were paid a large salary and in the course of which you may have had access to sensitive material," he said.
Veronica's defence lawyer pleaded the court to set her free by saying that she is, ''deeply ashamed and embarrassed" for her crimes and said that the "unique set of circumstances that were unlikely to be repeated." The judge struck the lawyer's plead down and went ahead with the sentencing.
