"I want to die. I've been framed. I want to die."
Former Australian of the Year state finalist Eman Sharobeem broke down during a corruption inquiry hearing in Sydney on Wednesday when accusing bookkeepers of framing her.
"Whoever framed me, you have the wrong person in this inquiry," Sharobeem told the Independent Commission Against Corruption.
"You are victimising me."
Sharobeem is accused of rorting more than half a million dollars while she was in charge of two publicly funded health services in Sydney to pay for personal holidays, jewellery and luxury goods.
She allegedly cut details like a shop name off receipts when submitting expenses for reimbursement.
During her second day of evidence before ICAC, Sharobeem said she was advised by an auditor or bookmaker to tear off parts of receipts "to reduce the amount of paper for each transaction".
"I was not cutting receipts, I was reducing the size of the paperwork," she said.
"I didn't know it was wrong."
Sharobeem recalled routinely leaving personal and work-related expenses on her desk for bookkeepers to sort through and reimburse because she was "enslaved" by other tasks.
She said she left receipts at "their mercy" and denied cutting and submitting a credit card receipt for dining chairs which was shown to the commission.
"I'm not a fool. Why would (the) organisation buy dining chairs, sir?" Sharobeem said.
"This is actually my own purchase."
She said she was "stupid, innocent or naive" to have told an auditor about dumping invoices from her bag onto her desk and being too busy to look at her bank accounts.
"I didn't cut this," she said of the partial receipt for the dining chairs.
"Obviously they cut it."
Sharobeem cried when questioned further by counsel assisting the commission, Ramesh Rajalingam.
"I'm sorry I'm just overwhelmed, I can't imagine what happened to me and why I'm being framed like that," she said.
After a brief adjournment, Sharobeem broke down again when talking about bank transfers for thousands of dollars from the Immigrant Women's Health Service to her account.
"It's all my accounts and I never look at them, I don't have time to even look at myself in the mirror," she said. "She framed me."
The ICAC hearing continues.
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