A forensic accountant went over the business transactions made by a woman accused of stealing more than $700,000 from a roofing firm.

Todd Boyd, an expert auditor, said that transactions Bambi Lee Pimental made to herself were regularly written off as advanced payment for her work with J W Gray and Company.

He told the Supreme Court that these transactions were recorded sometimes years from the date when they had actually taken place.

Mr Boyd told the jury: “This isn’t a situation where she did some work and then decided eight months later to pay herself – this was purposefully done.

“The only way the Grays would’ve noticed this would be if they looked far enough in the future or far enough in the past.”

Mr Boyd added that, while about a quarter of the cash went towards paying off a nearly $1.4 million mortgage, some of it went towards trips to Disney Resorts.

Ms Pimental has pleaded not guilty to three counts of theft, fraudulent false accounting, and using criminal property while employed by the family company between June 29, 2016 and June 4, 2020. She was alleged to have taken $706,436 over four years.

Mr Boyd, who was hired by police to review Ms Pimental’s and the business’s transactions, told the court that bank transactions first appeared to be normal when she was hired in January 2016.

It was not until June 29, that he saw $260 was moved from the business’s account to Ms Pimental’s.

Mr Boyd said this transaction was listed as a “loan” and added that he could not find “any documentation authorising this".

The following month listed more “loans” going from J W Gray and Company’s account to Ms Pimental’s, this time listing about $6,200 over two days.

Mr Boyd said he could not confirm whether or not the loan had been authorised, but added: “After this loan, things start to change and she starts to pay herself more and more.”

Mr Boyd said that transactions worth hundreds of dollars were eventually made monthly to Ms Pimental’s account.

He said that many of these transfers were listed as “material costs” or the cost of labour, while others had appeared as “incomplete” transactions in hard copies but were seen in electronic records.

Mr Boyd said that he counted 452 transfers made between the company and her, with the largest being worth more than $40,000 in January 2020.

Many transactions, he said, were listed in the company’s record as taking place before or after the actual transfer was made.

He explained that this kept records of the transfer out of the list of profit losses, because those were sorted by when it was listed and not when it was made.

Mr Boyd added that one transaction made to Ms Pimental was a $5,400 transfer listed as happening on May 4, 2014 – years before she started working at the company – when it had in fact been made on January 7, 2020.

Mr Boyd said that an analysis of the business account traced the money directly to Ms Pimental’s personal accounts.

He added that, based on further transactions from Ms Pimental’s accounts, he saw that about 25 per cent of the cash went towards paying off a mortgage.

Mr Boyd said that most of the money had gone to day-to-day expenses such as food, but noted that about $27,512 had been paid to Disney Resorts in five instalments in 2019.

The court earlier heard that Ms Pimental had been hired as a subcontractor rather than a company employee and was expected to work 25 hours a week at an hourly rate of $40.

She was responsible for preparing invoices, paying bills and calculating the weekly payroll.

The trial continues.

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