Moylan, of Lord Howe Drive, forged cheques in the name of Hunter Valley Training Company executive director Kay Sharp while maintaining accounts for TAFE World Skills – a subsidiary of HVTC – between 2008 and 2009. 

After a lengthy hearing spread over several months, Moylan was found guilty on Friday of 14 counts of stealing property as a clerk and three counts of forgery. 

Evidence from former employees during the hearing revealed it was common practice for a staffer at HVTC, not Moylan, to sign cheques in the name of Mrs Sharp when she was unavailable. 

But in her evidence earlier this year, Mrs Sharp said she never gave ­permission to any employee to sign her signature. 

When the forged cheques were ­presented to her she said they were ­clearly not her own signatures. 

At Maitland Local Court on Friday magistrate Sharron Crews said any lay person could see the difference between Mrs Sharp’s signature and those on the forged cheques. 

In other evidence, an independent accountant contracted to audit TAFE World Skills in 2009 said the audit had not been finalised because Moylan failed to produce key documents. 

The alleged $260,000 theft was discovered when large sums of money were redeposited into the company’s account. 

The court heard Moylan had made admissions to an independent investigator before the matter was reported to police. 

Ms Crews said the prosecution case was overwhelmingly strong and found each of the 20 offences proved. 

Moylan will be sentenced next month.