Offending against the Commonwealth for social security fraud are deemed to be serious offences by the legislature. This is reflected in a maximum penalty of 10 years imprisonment that applies if convicted of one of the various dishonesty provisions that can be laid against an accused person in the Criminal Code Act 1993 (Cth).
The offending is usually committed by offenders who intend to defraud social security services such as Centrelink, by making claims for payments which they are not entitled to. In some instances, offenders have dishonestly accumulated hundreds of thousands of dollars over several years.
The Criminal Code Act relevantly provides a statutory definition of “dishonest” which is a key ingredient in the Prosecution having to prove its case:
For the purposes of this Chapter, dishonest means:
(a) dishonest according to the standards of ordinary people; and
(b) known by the defendant to be dishonest according to the standards of ordinary people.
Some questions to consider if a person has been charged with a social security offence include:
- Has a mistake been made by the social security service when making a payment to a person?
- Has a mistake been made by the accused during a social security application?
- Did the accused have knowledge that they were in receipt of payment from the social security service that they were not entitled to?
- What acts did the accused do to deceive the social security provider, if any?
- Was the receipt of the money by the accused “dishonest”?
It is not enough to make a mistake in dealing with social security or other government organisations, or to even to be extremely negligent. Fraud requires deliberate or intentional dishonesty in dealing the social security.
If an offender is to be sentenced for social security fraud, they should be aware that the Court treats these offences extremely seriously and first-time offenders are not safe from avoiding terms of imprisonment. This will depend on important facts such as the sophistication of the fraud, the amount of money defrauded, the level of deception and dishonesty, and whether the offender has repaid the funds they were dishonestly in receipt of.
Should you or someone you know be charged with an offence, it is essential you receive legal advice from an experienced criminal defence lawyer at any early stage. To discuss your options, call Hugo Law Group in Sydney (02 9696 1361), Canberra (02 5104 9640) and Perth (08 6255 6909) to make an appointment to speak to one of our lawyers.
