Sydney Family's $2 Million Welfare Rort

[icyfroth]

Thirty-eight members of a western Sydney family have been caught rorting $2 million of welfare payments from the government.

One person claimed benefits while depositing $750,000 over three years and another paid off a $300,000 mortgage in just over two years while claiming income support.

 A third person received rent assistance for a property they already owned, said the Department of Human Services on Thursday.

 A spokesman for the department says the family fraud was discovered from a tip-off that a man had failed to declare his income.

Nineteen family members have had their welfare payments cancelled after a wide-ranging investigation and another 19 have had their payments reduced.

Five members of the family have been referred to the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions and debts have been raised against the fraudsters.

She admitted there was one family member who had failed to report almost $1 million over 11 years, and her department is working closely with the Australian Tax Office and Australian Federal Police.

Entire Article Here

"The debts we currently have in relation to social welfare fraud investigations are $39 million," she said.

 She warned people who are rorting the system that "we will find you".

Oh really? It took a tip-off for them to find this lot!

What about the other $37mil?

Australia the bountiful, Centrelink the inept.

[polksaladallie]

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@wilk1149 wrote:
Yes, we were all told that. It was well publicized un the media. They (police) even had undercover footage of him. Ddon't know what lala land you are in but

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Sure.  Whatever you say.    Police always tell the public every detail of their investigation methods.

[rabbitearbandicoot]

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@***super_nova*** wrote:

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@rabbitearbandicoot wrote:

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@polksaladallie wrote:

Not that way.

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of course it was that way ..... he was boasting about it to two guys who he thought were mafia (or similar) and they turned out to be undercover cops.

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Yep, that is exactly my point; criminals boast to other criminals.  So why did your rorters tell you?

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Oh! So now I am a criminal? OK then. Just forget I even mentioned it.

Attention Everyone!! don't talk to me I am a criminal ......super_nova has exposed me.

[rabbitearbandicoot]

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@rabbitearbandicoot wrote:

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@***super_nova*** wrote:

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@rabbitearbandicoot wrote:

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@polksaladallie wrote:

Not that way.

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of course it was that way ..... he was boasting about it to two guys who he thought were mafia (or similar) and they turned out to be undercover cops.

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Yep, that is exactly my point; criminals boast to other criminals.  So why did your rorters tell you?

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Oh! So now I am a criminal? OK then. Just forget I even mentioned it.

Attention Everyone!! don't talk to me I am a criminal ......super_nova has exposed me.

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They say confession is good for the soul .... it all started when I was 5 ... I stole 6p out of mum's purse .... and it just went on from there....

[icyfroth]

and who might that be?

[icyfroth]

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@lomba_louis wrote:

Why do you want to know? What difference will it make?

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why post such an accusation then, if it won't make a difference? Just for a bit of sport?

[icyfroth]

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@lomba_louis wrote:

You can relax: she isn't a superannuated, scrawny ginger.

(No wonder you choice a "Diane Keaton" avi as a replacement - the two of you look nothing alike! :D)

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and what has that to do with the topic?

[icyfroth]

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@lomba_louis wrote:

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@icyfroth wrote:

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@lomba_louis wrote:

You can relax: she isn't a superannuated, scrawny ginger.

(No wonder you choice a "Diane Keaton" avi as a replacement - the two of you look nothing alike! :D)

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and what has that to do with the topic?

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You became anxious and agitated over my comment and I replied to yours with the reassuring words that the desperado (in this case) convicted of social security fraud - wasn't you.

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And how would you know that?

[everything*that*i*ever*wanted]

With regards to the multiple identity thing...I've seen it with my own eyes back in 1998. I was working for Centrelink. A staff member was discovered to have created multiple ID's within the system...from memory at least 8 confirmed. There was a system in place back then that every 10th transaction you put through had to be Qual Checked. Well she had friends who trusted her and just signed off on anything she put through as she was a semi team leader and had been in the job for more than 10 years and no-one would have thought she would do such a thing. She was only caught because she stupidly lost track of bank accounts the payments were going into and organised a second payment, with a different name to go into the same account. It was only computer cross checking that she was caught.
It can be done. Sadly. But it would be extremely hard to do nowadays if you did not work internally. And with EVERY new payment application made now you have to provide current (less than 5yo for most) ID's and Birth Cert Ref numbers are automatically computer matched. These must have been long standing payments.

[***super_nova***]

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@everything*that*i*ever*wanted wrote:

It can be done. Sadly. But it would be extremely hard to do nowadays if you did not work internally. And with EVERY new payment application made now you have to provide current (less than 5yo for most) ID's and Birth Cert Ref numbers are automatically computer matched. These must have been long standing payments.

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Surely, they would also check some long standing beneficiaries?  I would assume that all benefits, except old age pension, would be periodically reviewed?   And as far as I know Social Security mail cannot be forwarded.  When I first bought this house I got some  social security mail for the old man (I think he was 92) who lived here before.  I tried to hand it back to the postie and told him that there is a mail redirection, and he said that he is not allowed to re-direct Social Security mail, it has to go back so they know the person does not live here any more; that was 20 years ago.

Of-course, it can be done, but perpetrating such fraud is a grand larceny, and jail sentence would be mandatory.

[softail-joanie]

"rort" means working the system to gain personal advantage. In Australia the practice is so wide-spread it has engendered it's own word for it, it seems.

Seems that everyone does that to some extient, if you have a job and sneak in some overtime hours, your working the company. That explaniation doesn't really say fraud, wit is how this topic reads to me.