HANDCUFFED and sitting in the witness box of Newcastle Local Court on Tuesday, Mackael Stockhausen - an IT specialist and fraudster accused of stealing more than $1 million from MJH Group - struggled to explain why a number of missing invoices could not be found.
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"I became lost in the sheer amount of shit that I find myself in," an emotional and exhausted-looking Stockhausen said. "Life has been hell the last 12 months."
There was the break-up with his girlfriend, which developed into an obsession, and then an apprehended domestic violence order, which Stockhausen breached so frequently and flagrantly that police described his contraventions as "systematic and relentless".
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There was the time Stockhausen hacked into her Snapchat and threatened to distribute his ex's intimate images online.
"Everything gets exposed now," Stockhausen wrote to her on January 15.
"All videos, all photos".
Then, the next day, Stockhausen set up a website in his ex's name, posting sexually explicit photographs and videos of her, describing sexual services she offered and providing a google map location of her home.
Then there was the falling out with his former friend and business partner, who Stockhausen tried to frame for setting up the sexually explicit website of his ex.
As well as all that, Stockhausen was facing criminal fraud charges and simultaneously being pursued in the NSW Supreme Court for allegedly stealing more than $1 million from MJH Group while working for the company as an administrator between 2016 and 2017.
Stockhausen was responsible for managing computer software and hardware orders for MJH Group, but stole a large sum of money by paying invoices to a business known as IT Supplies Direct.
IT Supplies Direct, it turns out, was was Stockhausen's company and the money was going into his account.
MJH Group puts the quantum at more than $1 million. Stockhausen and his solicitor, Chris O'Brien, say the amount is much lower.
On Monday, in the middle of a complex fraud hearing in Newcastle Local Court, Stockhausen pleaded guilty to 18 counts of dishonestly obtain financial advantage by deception. Two other counts were dismissed.
But the parties can't agree on the amount of money that was stolen and so the hearing continues. At least now Stockhausen can focus all his energies on this fraud matter.
The Supreme Court matter settled last week after MJH Group agreed to take about $285,000 of Stockhausen's assets that were frozen in 2017.
And Stockhausen isn't going anywhere anytime soon; he was jailed in July for a maximum of two years and four months for the AVO breaches, website and intimidation offences.
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