Anti-drug boss a heroin addict

Christine Caulfield, County Court reporter
August 13, 2004

THE head of an anti-drugs group walked free yesterday after stealing almost $35,000 from its coffers -- to feed her drug addiction.

Yolande Henkel, 38, was so stressed by her job at the Victorian Alcohol and Drugs Association she became a junkie, the County Court heard.

The court was told the government-funded committee was so poorly run Henkel forged signatures on cheques worth $75,000 to pay its bills.

Henkel, 38, who pleaded guilty over the forgeries and thefts, was sentenced to 2 1/2 years' jail, wholly suspended for three years.

The court heard Henkel began as chief executive officer of VADA in 1999, but was forced to quit at the end of 2000 when her drug problem worsened.

Judge Roland Williams said Henkel appeared to be the only seriously committed employee in a chaotic environment, and apparently turned to heroin to cope with the job.

He said her workload was so heavy she forged a co-signatory's name on VADA cheques just to ensure invoices were paid.

"I'm prepared to accept this was not for personal gain, but a pragmatic means of getting cheques signed and bills paid," the judge said. "You made the erroneous choice to rely on heroin to ease the stress you then experienced.

"Having started that vicious circle, you then started offending," he said.

The court heard Henkel kept $34,339.55 of VADA cheques and cash to buy heroin, then authorised an overdraft on the organisation's bank account and falsified an audit certificate to conceal the theft.

Judge Williams said the crimes warranted immediate jail, but there were powerful mitigating factors in her case.

He said Henkel, who had previously worked with Open Family, had led an exemplary life before and since, and the crimes were an aberration by a person of otherwise spotless character.

Her work with AIDS sufferers, troubled youths, homeless people and the mentally impaired demonstrated great charity and selflessness, he said.

Henkel, who is married with two children, had also fostered a homeless child for three years without welfare support.

She overcame her drug problem three years ago, got a job as a human resource manager for a baggage-handling company, and had voluntarily repaid the stolen money.

Henkel, from Maribyrnong, pleaded guilty to two counts of theft and one count each of making a false document, using a false document, obtaining financial advantage by deception and false accounting.

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