A billionaire’s trusted assistant accused of stealing $1.7million from her boss to fund a lavish lifestyle allegedly ordered $18,000 of booze from Dan Murphy’s on her employer’s special edition American Express card.
Annalouise Spence, 51, allegedly siphoned money from Sydney philanthropist Judith Neilson in order to fund luxury designer goods, cosmetics, jewellery, art and first-class travel.
Now new details have emerged in court documents about what Spence – the private secretary to Neilson, founder of the city’s White Rabbit gallery – allegedly used her boss’s $1.23billion fortune on.
She is accused of using Neilson’s card to purchase lingerie – including nine sets of bras and pants from racy brand Agent Provocateur, worth $3,392.97; homewares for her $4million Sydney house; multiple gifts for men, and collecting money from friends to pay for dinners, which were allegedly charged on the Amex card.
As Spence shelters in a luxury eastern suburbs psychiatric ward for at least another month while on bail, her list of charges has increased from 128 to 144 offences – a list that police say is set to balloon further – and by a further value of $35,000.
NSW Police say that Spence, who began work as Judith Neilson’s executive assistant on March 1, 2017, allegedly began stealing from the businesswoman before Christmas the same year.
Spence was promoted to private secretary for Neilson by April 2018, entitling her to live rent free with her rally car driver husband Adam Spence in one of Neilson’s houses.
New details about the glamorous accused thief Annalouise Spence’s secret spending spree on her billionaire boss’s credit cards have emerged and include her and her husband Adam’s (the couple is pictured) birthday parties
Billionaire Judith Neilson is the Sydney philanthropist behind Chippendale’s White Rabbit gallery
Police allege Spence bought nine sets of bras and pants from racy lingerie brand Agent Provocateur (above) worth $3392.87
But by then, court documents allege, Spence had begun charging up a booze bill to Dan Murphy’s which, according to an itemised list, included gin, chardonnay, rosé, pinot noir, champagne, vermouth, beer, limoncello, mixers and Dan Murphy accessories.
The $18,016.40 bill was allegedly charged to two of Judith Neilson’s credit cards, including her Black Amex, the ultra-exclusive, invitation-only card also known as the American Express Centurion Card.
The new charge adds the allegations of pilfered alcohol to a previous charge count encompassing four bottles costing $450 each from Cloudwine Cellars bought just before Spence’s 2023 birthday.
The latest additional charges further expand Spence’s alleged stolen cosmetic treatments and products to include goods from Merit, Mecca and La Prairie.
They also widen the haul of designer labels to add luxury fashion brand Loewe to Miu Miu, Tiffany, Louboutin, Burberry Louise Vuitton, Tom Ford, Marni, Longchamps, Gucci and Jimmy Choo.
Spence is also accused of charging friends for their contribution to dinner bills and buying Kylie Minogue concert tickets that she charged on her employer’s cards.
Known to her friends and to Ms Neilson as ‘Lou’, Spence was granted access to her wealthy boss’s credit cards and bank account for eight years before her arrest in April this year, as she managed all personal, household and travel expenditure.
When Neilson obtained her Black Amex more than three years ago, Spence allegedly blocked Neilson’s finance team’s visibility of the account and used her own card, obtained, police allege, by using a false email address.
Annalouise Spence was arrested at her husband’s Sydney home in April and placed behind bars but granted bail and is currently in a luxury mental health unit on 144 charges of dishonesty. Above, at the tennis
Spence allegedly falsified an email to obtain her own Black Amex – the ultra-exclusive, invitation-only card also known as the American Express Centurion Card
Spence was billionaire Judith Neilson’s trusted assistant for eight years before she left (above, together). Neilson’s new assistant then allegedly spotted discrepancies in the philanthropist’s finances
The new expanded list of charges against Spence are all for the same alleged offence, dishonestly obtaining property by deception, each of which is liable for a maximum penalty of ten years in prison.
Ms Neilson, 79, employed Spence until mid-2025, when it was determined the private secretary role was no longer required and Spence took a redundancy package.
On a Saturday afternoon last year, Spence organised her own 50th birthday party at five-star hotel Capella Sydney, costing $40,000.
It featured $1000 of table napkins monogrammed with her initials ‘AS’, and the birthday girl was resplendent in a $1200 dress and Jimmy Choo shoes.
Jimmy Choos appear to have been the accused thief’s favourite, with police alleging she charged a total of $26,854 to Judith Neilson’s credit cards for the label, the final purchase in May 2025 including ten pairs of Jimmy Choos and two handbags.
Ms Neilson – whose $1.23billion fortune came from a global equities firm co-founded by her late ex-husband – attended the party without realising she paid for the whole thing, court documents state.
They also state that Neilson partially funded the 50th birthday of Spence’s racing driver husband Adam, attended by 25 people in January 2024 in Tasmania. It is not suggested he was aware of his wife’s alleged dishonesty.
When Judith Neilson’s new executive assistant Katy Lloyd-Jones started work last September she noticed ‘unusual charges’ on her boss’s Amex and raised the alarm.
Spence was arrested at her husband’s Erskineville home in inner-western Sydney on April 22 and placed in the Surry Hills Police Centre cells before being taken to Silverwater Women’s then Dillwynia corrrectional centres.
She was released on bail in late June to immediate admission to The Sydney Clinic at Bronte, where she will remain until late August, the Downing Centre Local Court heard last week.
