Private secretary of billionaire Judith Neilson refused bail on $1m fraud charges | New South Wales

The former private secretary of billionaire philanthropist Judith Neilson has been charged with dozens of counts of fraud after she allegedly used a business credit card to make more than $1m worth of purchases, including luxury clothing, artwork and jewellery.

Annalouise Spence, 50, was refused bail at a local court hearing on Thursday after being charged with 68 counts of dishonestly obtaining property by deception.

She was arrested on Wednesday morning in Erskineville, in Sydney’s inner west, after officers executed search warrants at the home and a storage unit in Campbelltown, police said.

“During the search, officers located and seized luxury handbags, jewellery, clothing, documents and other personal items,” New South Wales police said in a statement.

Police said an investigation began in November last year into “alleged fraudulent expense claims made by an employee of a Chippendale business”.

Spence allegedly used a business credit account to make “unauthorised purchases of luxury and personal items, including clothing, artwork and jewellery” between March 2023 and September 2025.

On Thursday afternoon, the court heard the alleged unauthorised purchases totalled $1.6m. Police located 115 items during the search.

The police prosecutor opposed bail on several grounds, including that Spence, who has no criminal history, might interfere with witnesses connected to the alleged financial transactions. The police argued Spence had made “admissions” by paying back funds.

Spence’s lawyer, Bryan Wrench, sought bail, saying his client – who appeared via video link – had paid back almost $850,000 to her employer, who she had been “completely engaged with” since October 2025.

He said his client had not worked since then, suffered from bipolar disorder and complex PTSD and was on a “shopping list of medications” for her conditions. She was discharged in November last year after spending a month in a mental health facility.

Wrench said the charge sheet issued to Spence by police was “defective”, with one charge which appeared to be a “template” that didn’t identify the name of the item, its description, or the name of the owner. The defence had only received the police facts on Wednesday evening, Wrench said.

“We had to subscribe to the Sydney Morning Herald to seek information about [these charges],” he told the court.

The judge, Lucas Swan, acknowledged that the police’s charge sheet was “confusing”, and while the offences “are all at this point allegations”, the repayments appeared to be admissions to a number of the charges.

“It is my assessment that the strength of this case is overwhelming and if convicted of the offences in front of this court a custodial sentence … would be inevitable,” he said, refusing bail.

Neilson, who founded the Judith Neilson Institute in 2018 to the tune of $100m, has wide philanthropic interests and owns the White Rabbit art gallery in Chippendale.

The institute “champions quality journalism and storytelling in Australia”, according to its website.

According to the Australian Financial Review’s 2025 rich list, Neilson has a net worth of about $1.2bn.

Spence began working as a private secretary to Neilson in March 2017, according to her LinkedIn profile. The Sydney Morning Herald reported on Wednesday that the alleged “industrial-scale fraud” was detected after a restructuring of Neilson’s office resulted in Spence leaving her role in September last year.

While doing her employer’s accounts, Neilson’s new executive assistant reportedly noticed a $58,600 bill from July on “a rare pink-gold Rolex wristwatch” from a shop in London, followed by a bill for $21,000 from luxury department store Harrods. Neilson, who does not wear expensive jewellery, was not in the UK at the time, the Herald reported.

The article states that after being contacted by Neilson’s finance department, Spence apologised, claiming the invoices were a mix-up, and repaid the money, but more discrepancies appeared.

The Sydney Morning Herald article alleges that after Neilson received an American Express Centurion card in November 2023, or “Black Amex”, Spence called the company to request a supplementary card in her own name.

Spence allegedly spent $400,000 on travel, $335,000 on fashion items and $184,000 on jewellery. The Herald reported she allegedly transferred almost 1m of Neilson’s Qantas frequent flyer points for her own use and withdrew thousands of dollars in cash, claiming it was for her employer’s overseas travel.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported that Neilson, who said she did not authorise Spence’s supplementary card, was unaware that she herself had paid $40,000 for Spence’s 50th birthday party, which she attended in April last year, including $1,000 for monogrammed napkins, $1,200 on an evening gown and $10,000 on “Jimmy Choo stilettos and a matching gold evening bag”.

Neilson’s team reportedly hired “a risk and crisis manager” in November and had been working with NSW police.

Police said investigations were continuing. The case has been adjourned until 7 May. Spence has not entered a plea.