A former insurance executive and her lawyer-turned-corrections officer husband are expected to serve significant jail terms for defrauding more than $17 million from insurance underwriter Dual.

Key points: Josie Gonzalez sent her employer invoices from a company set up by the couple for the "sophisticated" scam

Josie Gonzalez sent her employer invoices from a company set up by the couple for the "sophisticated" scam The couple's lawyers pleaded for mercy due to their young children, aged six and 11

The couple's lawyers pleaded for mercy due to their young children, aged six and 11 County Court Judge Paul Lacava said Josie Gonzalez had offered a "litany of lies" during the trial

Josie Gonzalez, 45, and Alvaro Gonzalez, 51, were found guilty of 14 charges of obtaining financial advantage by deception, after a jury trial in June and July.

A plea hearing in the County Court heard that from March 2011 to May 2012, Ms Gonzalez worked at Dual as a national payments manager and sent 429 false invoices to the finance department of the firm, totalling just over $17.4 million.

The invoices were from Jaag Lawyers, a company set up by the couple to carry out the scam, the court heard.

"The use of a virtual office and the use of various invoices … were all part of the sophisticated plan," prosecutor Andrew Grant told the court.

The court heard the amounts on the invoices grew over time and that Ms Gonzalez went to ever greater lengths to conceal the fraud, including recoding the accounting software.

The court heard the couple had to sell their Kew property in order to pay back the money in full. ( Website: RealEstateView )

Fraud discovered by maternity leave backfill

"A good fraudster will always find a way through what seems to be an impregnable accounting system," Judge Paul Lacava told the court.

Both of them were lawyers and the court heard Mr Gonzalez submitted handwritten timesheets to back up the claims.

"Both Mr Gonzalez and Ms Gonzalez relied on the facade that was created that Jaag Lawyers was a law firm, to produce invoices," Mr Grant said.

The fraud was detected when Ms Gonzalez went on maternity leave in 2013, and her successor pointed out anomalies to the company's head office in the UK.

"As long as there was plenty of money in London, this could have gone on for a long time," Judge Lacava noted.

'Litany of lies'

The court heard Ms Gonzalez was the main offender.

"Ms Gonzalez used her position, her knowledge of the process and the system, and misused that knowledge," Mr Grant told the court.

Judge Lacava questioned whether the couple, in particular Ms Gonzalez, were genuinely remorseful.

He said there was a "litany of lies punctuated only by periods of prevarication" by Ms Gonzalez during the trial.

The court heard the couple had paid the money back in full, after Dual pursued civil action against them.

They had to sell properties in Kew and Carlton and hand over cash and sign a deed of settlement in September 2013.

The court heard at one stage the family had been living in a single room at her mother's place.

That came at "considerable cost" to Ms Gonzalez, her lawyer Alan Hands said.

Plea to spare jail due to young children

The court heard the couple claimed to have settled for "financial reasons" and denied they gained the money fraudulently, even though that was written in the deed.

During the trial, Ms Gonzalez maintained that document was not accurate.

Defence lawyers Peter Kilduff for Mr Gonzalez and Mr Hands for Ms Gonzalez sought mercy from Judge Lacava because of their young children, aged six and 11, who are currently being looked after by their grandparents.

The court heard Ms Gonzalez had defrauded a previous employer in 1995 and was charged with 51 offences but there was no conviction.

Judge Lacava asked how she had cleared the admissions process as a lawyer with that record.

"I'm astounded the Board of Examiners let her through," he said.

"But she's not on trial for that."

After leaving Dual and paying back the money, Ms Gonzalez worked in the Education Department as a Freedom of Information officer and then in the Ministerial and Executive Service branch of the Victorian Government.

"Her fall has been tremendous — from working with a large international company to sharing a cell," Mr Hands said of his client.

The court heard Mr Gonzalez had worked as a corrections officer in Sunshine after the deception was discovered.

The couple will be sentenced at a later date.