How we uncovered a $416,000 fraud and helped a family business survive
The books said the business was profitable. The bank account said otherwise. Six days after the owner asked for an investigation, there was enough evidence to hand to police.
Where they started
NN Accountability was appointed to prepare the tax return for a family owned marine electrical business. The warning signs came almost immediately. The bookkeeper delayed system access for months, bank statements never arrived, and basic questions went unanswered.
When the owner raised concerns about unusually high Business Activity Statement figures, the team ran a full audit of both the Xero and the MYOB files. Over six days it uncovered evidence of systematic fraud that would later lead to a criminal conviction.
The business ran two accounting systems at once. That is what made the fraud possible, and it is also what made it hard to see: a payment concealed in one file looked ordinary in the other, and nothing reconciled the two.
What we found when we opened the file
What we did
What it produced
Most business owners do not suspect fraud. They just know something does not add up. By the time they ring us, they have usually been carrying that uneasy feeling for months.
Nikoletta, Director, NN Accountability
When to consider a forensic review
If any of these sound familiar, your instinct is worth listening to.
- Your activity statement, your Profit and Loss or your cash position keeps telling a different story to your bank balance.
- A trusted employee or contractor controls your books, your bank uploads and your payroll, with no independent oversight.
- You have noticed unexplained payments, supplier names you do not recognise, or transactions that have been moved or recoded.
- Someone is reluctant to give you, or your accountant, full access to the accounting file or the bank statements.
- You suspect fraud but have been told there is nothing to see, or that you are imagining it.
- You are heading into a court matter, a divorce, a partnership dispute, an insurance claim or a sale, and you need numbers that will be defensible.
Independently verified
“Betrayal” busts business
Jail for employee whose theft of $400k has left company reeling
Gold Coast Bulletin, October 2024 and February 2026
The forensic work formed part of the evidence the Crown relied on in securing a conviction.
NN Accountability is one of a small number of practices on the Gold Coast with the technical depth to investigate concurrent fraud across two accounting systems and produce evidence suitable for Queensland courts.
About the forensic accountants
Nikoletta is the founder and director of NN Accountability, a qualified public accountant and a member of the Institute of Public Accountants, and a Justice of the Peace (Qualified) in Queensland.
The specialism is accounting software setups, migrations and forensic audits across MYOB and Xero. That is the technical ground this case was won on. It meant knowing both systems well enough to see what one was being used to hide from the other, and to reconstruct it in days rather than years.
Zsuzsa, our Forensic Accountant, brings over 18 years of experience in taxation and accounting, a career that began internationally as a tax inspector at a national tax authority. She investigates and reconstructs accounting records and reports to evidence grade.
Forensic work at NN Accountability is led jointly by Nikoletta and Zsuzsa, with discretion throughout and a methodical, court ready approach.
Other work
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