A man who gambled more than $64,000 from a fundraiser he organised for an alleged murder victim’s family has avoided jail time.
Lachlan Morganti, 26, was sentenced to 400 hours of community service in Ballarat Magistrates Court on Tuesday after earlier pleading guilty to the April theft from the online fundraiser.
Morganti launched a GoFundMe page for the family of 23-year-old Hannah McGuire, whose body was found in a burnt-out car in Scarsdale, about 25km south of Ballarat, on April 5.
Her former partner Lachlan Young has pleaded not guilty to her murder.
Magistrate Michelle Mykytowycz noted if Morganti had not pleaded guilty, she would have sentenced him to six months in prison.
The maximum sentence for the offending would have been 10 years.
Mykytowycz accepted Morganti – who knew the McGuires through the local cricket club and the family’s pub – …