The former chief executive of an NT Aboriginal legal service has been sentenced to three months in prison and five months in home detention for misusing her position and forgery.

Veronica Cubillo - once the chief executive of the North Australian Aboriginal Family Violence Legal Services (NAAFVLS) - was found guilty of 11 counts of fraudulent conduct for misappropriating about $10,000.

Supreme Court Justice Jenny Blokland found Cubillo had forged receipts for made-up expenses, and even used part of a NAAFVLS grant for a trip to the Philippines.

The grant was received from the Indigenous TV network Imparja Television, and had been intended to pay for community substance abuse programs.

Cubillo was ordered to repay $7,624.50 to NAAFVLS.

It could have been much worse though, as she faced faced a maximum of seven years imprisonment for each of her five charges under the NT criminal code, and up to five years imprisonment for each of her six charges under the Corporations (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander) Act 2006.

She could have been fined $340,000 per charge under the Corporations Act too.

Justice Jenny Blokland said that only a small amount of money taken, but the offending was far from “trivial”.

“The offending brings into question the credibility of organisations such as NAAFVLS,” Justice Blokland said.