Former Dual Australia claims manager Josie Gonzalez has showed no remorse for defrauding the underwriting agency of $17.4 million, and her evidence during her trial was “a litany of lies punctuated only by moments of prevarication”.

“She hasn’t been remorseful at all,” Judge Paul Lacava said during a plea hearing at the County Court of Victoria last week. “In fact, she said the whole Crown case was false.”

Josie Gonzalez, 45, and her husband Alvaro, 51, have been in custody for more than 70 days after being found guilty by a jury on 14 charges each of cheating Dual.

Three of the 14 charges involve claims of more than $50,000 and carry a maximum penalty of 20 years.

The court was also told that in 1995, when Josie was just 21, she pleaded guilty in a separate case of gaining financial advantage by deception at another employer. She received a two-year good behaviour bond.

Josie’s defence barrister Alan Hands conceded that “both parents are looking at a significant time in jail” and said Josie’s “fall has been pronounced from working for a large company” as she struggles to cope in prison.

Alvaro’s defence barrister Peter Kilduff said the gravity of the fraud is “serious” and “clearly a term of imprisonment is appropriate given the jury’s verdict.”

Although their fraud was “very serious,” Judge Lacava revealed he was finding sentencing challenging because, unusually, the case involves two parents being jailed at the same time.

The pair have two daughters, aged six and 11.

“That makes it difficult,” Judge Lacava said. “I have been very concerned about the fact that I have the parents of two young children before me, and I am very mindful of that,” he said.

The couple began falsely billing Dual a few months after Josie joined Dual in November 2010. In her testimony, she claimed Alvaro worked 16,500 hours in a little over two years providing legal work for Dual, equating to 126-hour weeks. He charged $1000 an hour despite having less than two years’ legal experience.

More than 400 invoices were submitted to Dual from Jaag Lawyers, a law firm the couple set up to defraud the company. Dual was the only client of Jaag, an acronym of Josie and Alvaro Gonzalez.

The fraud against Dual was uncovered by relief staff when Josie took maternity leave in 2013.

The couple, who returned all the money taken from Dual under a civil deed six years ago, remain in custody. A date for sentencing has not yet been fixed.