Case studies

A financial planner lied to his clients by falsely stating he had invested their funds and that their investments were performing well. However, rather than investing $5.1 million of his client's funds, the financial planner used them as he pleased. The man was found guilty of 8 counts of fraud under the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) and an additional 4 counts of fraud under the Crimes Act 1914 (Cth). He was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

An insurance broker engaged in dishonest conduct by diverting 51 client refunds to personal accounts held in his name, totalling $199,391. The man was found guilty of 7 counts of fraud and sentenced to 2 years and 9 months in prison. He was also ordered to repay $29,951.30.

An employee defrauded $19 million from her company. The senior accountant used her access to the company's payroll and superannuation accounts to steal the money. The company collapsed shortly afterwards which led to 1,300 people losing their jobs. The accountant pleaded guilty to 24 counts of theft and was sentenced to 8 years in prison.

A man has been charged with allegedly assisting members of the public to fraudulently obtain Australian Government Disaster Recovery Payments that were intended to support victims of the NSW bushfires. Services Australia received a tip-off that the man was allegedly calling the hotline to claim payments on behalf of other people even though they were not adversely affected by the NSW bushfires. He would then receive payments or benefits in return. The man also allegedly threatened potential witnesses to the fraud.

A medical clinic owner defrauded the Commonwealth of more than $3.3 million by claiming rebates for services not given to over 5,870 different patients. He deleted the claims from the clinic's practice management software shortly after submitting them in order to avoid detection from employees and health practitioners of the clinic. The investigation was commenced when several members of the public made enquiries about their claim history for services they had neither sought nor received. The man pleaded guilty to 6 charges of fraud under the Criminal Code 1995 (Cth) and was sentenced to 6 years in prison.

A researcher from the University of Queensland claimed to have undertaken research on treatment strategies for Parkinson’s Disease, however the research was never carried out and their research article was entirely fabricated. After learning about the fraud, a second academic chose to continue the fraud and apply for grants using the fraudulent research. The two were convicted and sentenced on 22 charges of fraud and attempted fraud. Both were sentenced to 2 years in prison. This was Australia's first criminal prosecution for research fraud.

A business owner under-reported tax withheld from his employees to a total value of $173,819 to the Australian Taxation Office. The business owner declared he had deducted $84,158 in Pay As You Go tax from his employees' wages when employee tax returns showed he actually withheld $257,977. The man was found guilty of one count of fraud under the Criminal Code 1995 (Cth) and sentenced to 2 years in prison.

The general manager of a livestock exporter provided forged documents to the Australian Government to obtain approval to export live sheep to Pakistan. The manager caused his employee (without knowing) to alter import requirements from the Pakistani Government and draft a certificate of health to make the sheep appear eligible to be imported into the country. The manager was found guilty of fraud under the Criminal Code 1995 (Cth) and sentenced to 18 months in prison.

A Melbourne woman was convicted of fraud after using $600,000 worth of resident’s deposits from an Aged Care facility. The company went into liquidation shortly afterwards leaving 42 residents without a home and debts of $4.5 million. She deceived residents when she told them their deposit money would be held in a trust account and that interest gained from the money would be used to reduce accommodation fees.

The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) identified a company had been importing counterfeit condoms. The TGA proactively contacted customers who purchased the counterfeit condoms and organised a recall in addition to taking action against the supplier. The TGA’s response received positive media coverage and boosted public confidence in the TGA.