Keira Robinson Meldrum: Former QBE manager who stole $333,416 from insurer, bought Tesla, sent to jail

A former QBE manager who stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from the insurer and used some of it to buy a Tesla has been jailed for two-and-a-half years. Keira Meldrum Robinson was the workers’ compensation claims team service manager when she made 16 false claims between December 2022 and December 2024. Her WA District Court sentencing was told she created them under the profiles of historical claimants or current policy holders, then instructed her subordinates to approve them, despite the absence of supporting documentation. She ensured 15 of the payments went into bank accounts that she either held or could access, while the sixteenth went direct to Tesla Motors Australia for the purchase of a Model Y vehicle. The car was received by her husband and registered in his name. Meldrum even twice sent emails appearing to be from people whose names the claims had been made under to her own QBE email account, in a bid to make them appear legitimate. Her brazen crimes were uncovered after QBE received a complaint from a customer’s insurance broker who advised that his client had received a remittance notice for a claim not requested and not received. By then, she had stolen a total of $333,416. The 39-year-old had already left the company when financial crime squad detectives arrested her at her home in April last year. Judge Felicity Kate Zempilas said the offending was relatively sophisticated, deliberate and planned. “This type of conduct is harmful. It undermines the ability of employers to operate their businesses based on trust and honesty,” she said. The judge noted that Meldrum’s judgment had been impaired as she responded to significant financial and personal stress by drinking excessively. The mother-of-three, who had no prior criminal record, will be eligible for parole after serving 15 months’ imprisonment. Meldrum surrendered the Tesla as part of QBE’s WA Supreme Court civil action against her.