Final statements were delivered yesterday as the trial of a woman accused of stealing $700,000 from her employer came to a close.

Bambi Lee Pimental, 54, has pleaded not guilty to three counts of theft, fraudulent false accounting, and using criminal property, while subcontracted as a book-keeper by the roofing firm JW Gray and Company between June 2016 and June 2020.

Delivering her closing statement yesterday, Shaunté Simons-Fox, for the Crown, asserted that Ms Pimental stole a “life-changing amount of money” from her boss, Jonathan Gray, and his wife, Susan.

She pointed out to the Supreme Court jury that Ms Pimental admitted at least five times to have taken the cash, one of which was caught in an audio recording.

Ms Simons-Fox added: “She told him that she promised herself that she would stop – but she didn’t.

“This isn’t just the actions of someone who made a mistake. She only stopped because she got caught.”

Ms Simons-Fox said that Ms Pimental had every opportunity to share the accounts that she believed proved her innocence with the police, but instead waited until she was on the stand to divulge them.

She added that, because of Ms Pimental’s alleged actions, the Grays were left with deeply damaged trust.

She said that Ms Gray, when giving her testimony, “broke out in tears” while on the stand and added that her trust had been “shattered”.

Ms Simons-Fox said that Ms Pimental had “all the hallmark behaviour of a liar”.

She explained: “Her evidence was confusing, it didn’t make sense and she changed her story whenever it was convenient.

“At one point while giving her evidence, I asked her to make it make sense to me — and she said, ‘I can’t’.”

Ms Pimental earlier claimed that the allegations had been made against her in an effort for the Grays to take the deed to her property.

However, Ms Simons-Fox said this claim was “bizarre” and “didn’t add up”.

She added: “The defendant refuses to take responsibility for her actions.

“She is throwing spaghetti at the wall and seeing what sticks – but nothing does.”

Victoria Greening, for the defence, argued that her client was “emphatic” that not only was she owed the money but that her employer would have approved the transfers.

She pointed out that Ms Pimental said on the stand that Mr Gray always offered her monetary relief, and that on four occasions she took him up on his offer.

Ms Greening added: “She said that she believed what she did was honest – and if you accept that she believed what she did was honest, then you must acquit her of theft.”

She reminded the jury that, although her client did not give police her personal evidence, she was within her rights to keep her information to herself until consulting her lawyers.

Ms Greening added that her client’s confessions about messing up and being willing to working for free to pay off her debts were about unpaid loans, which she said her client believed this to initially be about.

The jury is expected to deliberate today.

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