Case studies

A Bangladeshi national created documents using the then Australian Department of Immigration and Citizenship seal in an effort to extract fees for visa applications, which were never lodged. He defrauded 23 Singapore-based Bangladeshi construction workers. He was also found to have falsely represented himself as an immigration official to seven people in July 2011 during which he told the ‘applicants’ their visa applications had been delayed but would be progressed. Following payment of the initial fee of $1,510, the applicants were asked to pay further fees for medical examinations.

A Sydney man was arrested over alleged fraudulent claims for Australians affected by the recent bushfires and coronavirus. It is alleged that the man had assumed up to 11 identities and created 53 fictitious identities to submit claims for Commonwealth Government benefits. The value of the alleged fraudulent payments is approximately $70,000.

Two women from Port Macquarie were arrested after allegedly making suspicious claims for bushfire and coronavirus welfare assistance.

A former managing director of a charity misused Commonwealth grant funding to pay invoices and buy a new car. He fraudulently spent $44,551.26 of public funds that were supposed to rehabilitate Australian land by weeding and planting trees. The grant funding was also meant to provide opportunities for Indigenous training, employment and community engagement activities. The man was convicted and sentenced to 12 months in prison.

An Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) employee disclosed sensitive and unpublished ABS data which he obtained in his capacity as a Commonwealth official. This inside information was then used by an associate to conduct trades on the foreign exchange derivatives market. The pair knew that such information could make both of them large amounts of money. One man was sentenced to 7 years and 3 months in prison and the other man was sentenced to 3 years and 3 months in prison

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.

A Queensland woman dishonestly obtained $35,015.53 in single parenting payments over a period of 3 years and 8 months. She repeatedly made false declarations of the income she received from her employment to Centrelink, whilst in receipt of Parenting Payment, to intentionally misrepresent her true circumstances. The woman was sentenced to 6 months in prison and was ordered to repay Centrelink $31,318.53.

A Mildura man used phoenix behaviour to illegally fail to remit more than $664,000 in PAYG from his forty nine employees for the ATO. He also arranged for more than 136 false income tax returns to be lodged on behalf of forty nine of his employees. Many of the tax returns were lodged on behalf of people on working holiday visas using identities of former employees who had departed Australia. In total $187,994 in tax refunds was repaid. The man was also sentenced to 6 months in prison.

A welfare recipient received Centrelink benefits to which she was not entitled by claiming she was single when she was in a de facto relationship. The recipient lied to Centrelink about her circumstances on a number of occasions in order to keep the fraud going.

A Queensland woman was charged for collecting her late mother’s pension for nearly 20 years which totalled $254,440. The woman’s mother had a separate bank account under a different name which continued to receive payments after her death. The woman regularly withdrew funds from this bank account and updated the address and contact details multiple times over a number of years. The woman was sentenced to 2 years and 6 months imprisonment.