Two people have been jailed for their roles in a criminal enterprise to fraudulently claim funds from the government’s child care subsidy payment scheme.
The Australian Federal Police (AFP) began an investigation into this matter after the Department of Education, Skills and Employment provided information regarding suspicious activity relating to the scheme.
The AFP began investigating the circumstances of a large number of family day care payments that occurred following the enrolment of more than 1,600 children over a one month period in 2017 by two family day care providers.
Claims made for the care of these children totalled more than $9.274 million.
It was alleged in court that a person referred to as “XY” was a key facilitator in a scheme to purchase two pre-existing family day care services and falsely claim child care benefits on their behalf.
To distance themselves from the fraud, ‘front people’ were used for the companies running the service.
A 36-year-old Merrylands woman was alleged to be one of these ‘front people’ who conducted fraudulent banking transactions in exchange for cash payments.
XY was arrested by police in 2018 and pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to defraud the Commonwealth.
The person referred to as “XY” has been sentenced to four years’ imprisonment, with a non-parole period of two years and six months.
The 36-year-old woman was arrested by police on 3 August 2017 and pleaded guilty to one count recklessly deal with proceeds of crime, money or property worth $1,000,000 or more.
The woman was sentenced to four years’ imprisonment, with a non-parole period of two years.
There are a number of other court proceedings continuing in relation to this investigation.
