SA court suspends jail term of Andrea Ruth Lowe, who deleted emails about her husband's $1.135m racket Andrea Ruth Lowe outside the District Court. A GREEDY and materialistic public servant who lived the high life on $1.135 million embezzled, from the Victims of Crime fund, by her husband has been spared jail. The District Court on Thursday said Andrea Ruth Lowe was deserving of jail, but opted to suspend her 14-month prison sentence on condition of a good behaviour bond. Judge Paul Muscat said he did not believe Lowe's claim she was ignorant of her husband's million-dollar fraud scheme, but said she had been severely punished already. "You have completely destroyed your career in the public sector and you now have to raise your 22-month-old son as a single mother surviving on Centrelink," he said. Despite the fact you were a greedy person who had a desire for material wealth, you have now paid a very high price for your crime. Andrea Lowe and her husband, Nicholas, on their overseas holiday. Photo: District Court Registry. I consider you have already been personally deterred ... the past is behind you, look forward and don't look back. Lowe, 30, of Henley Beach South, pleaded guilty to one count of impeding an investigation following a plea bargain deal with prosecutors. She admitted that, following the arrest of her husband Nicholas, she used her State Government-issue computer to delete a series of incriminating e-mails. Lowe's husband had used his position at the Crown Solicitors Office to mastermind a $1.135 million embezzlement of the Victims of Crime compensation fund. Victims of Crime fund fraud mastermind Nicholas Wayne Lowe in Thailand. Picture: District Court Registry. The computer she used to commit her crime was located in the office of then-Police Minister Jennifer Rankine, for whom Lowe was working as a personal assistant. She was also running her own business as a photographer specialising in taking portraits of victims of crime. Lowe this week pleaded ignorance of the scheme masterminded by her husband, claiming she was "a spending addict" who did not question the source of their cashflow. She said she believed he was growing drugs, not defrauding the fund, and was heavily pregnant and enduring "tremendous, tumultuous, unique pressures" following his arrest. In sentencing today, Judge Muscat accepted Lowe was under pressure but said that did not excuse her deliberate deletion of the e-mails. He said the messages she wiped - which named her husband and three of his co-conspirators - were proof she had always been aware of the "elaborate" scheme. "It's not to your credit that you have tried to maintain a certain position of distance and ignorance when the evidence proves overwhelmingly otherwise," he said. Judge Muscat told Lowe to express her gratitude to her defence counsel. "Had you gone to trial on the original charges and been found guilty, I would have definitely sent you to prison - no buts about it," he said. Originally published as Minister's aide spared jail over $1.1 million fraud cover-up