Case studies

A woman has been charged for allegedly helping a friend “hack” into the online account of a 56-year-old man and transferring $239,000 worth of cryptocurrency into her own account. In a first of its kind case in Australia, the woman pleaded guilty to dishonestly causing a financial disadvantage by deception and knowingly dealing with the proceeds of crime. The woman was convicted and jailed for a maximum of 2 years and 3 months.

A cleaner contracted by Comcare to support 2 compensation recipients received payments totalling $22,289.57 for 42 invoiced services that were never provided.

A former Biosecurity Officer at the Commonwealth Department of Agriculture (as it was then known) abused his position to coordinate the import of animals into Australia illegally. As part of the man’s employment he was responsible for inspecting cargo and specimens being imported into Australia. He used this position of trust and access to take and then sell the animals online. The man was convicted and sentenced to 3 years in prison.

A group has been charged with allegedly convincing vulnerable people to fraudulently marry non-citizens that were seeking to obtain permanent residency in Australia.

A Melbourne man used a second identity to claim and receive the Newstart Allowance and Disability Support Pension at the same time. The total proven amount defrauded was $243,875.26. The fraud was initially detected from data matching activities between the Australian Taxation Office and Services Australia. The man was sentenced to 4 years in prison.

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.

Three family members submitted false claims for Family Day Care in 2015 to defraud the program of $955,438.32. The judge noted during sentencing that the family knew the claims were fraudulent as child care services had never been provided. The family members received jail sentences that ranged between 4 years and 18 months. 

A Victorian man falsely claiming to be a qualified in vitro fertilisation (IVF) specialist performed a range of treatments on 30 victims. The man who never studied medicine deliberately deceived his victims, defrauded them of $370,000 and performed invasive procedures on their bodies.

A Sydney man and his sister submitted 77 online applications to the Australian Electoral Commission in an attempt to falsely enrol or update voter details in the lead up to an election. The applications contained false address information. The man was sentenced to 21 months imprisonment, and his co-accused received a suspended 2 month jail sentence.

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.