{"id":2871,"date":"2019-05-23T14:35:43","date_gmt":"2019-05-23T14:35:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/?p=2871"},"modified":"2019-05-23T14:35:43","modified_gmt":"2019-05-23T14:35:43","slug":"five-arrested-for-million-dollar-ndis-fraud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2019\/05\/23\/five-arrested-for-million-dollar-ndis-fraud\/","title":{"rendered":"Five arrested for million-dollar NDIS fraud"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\nA joint agency investigation into an organised criminal syndicate suspected of defrauding the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) of millions of dollars has today resulted in the arrest of five people in western Sydney.
\nToday\u2019s arrests are the result of a six-month investigation by the NDIS Fraud Taskforce \u2013 comprising members of the Australian Federal Police (AFP), the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) and the Department of Human Services (DHS). This investigation was supported by the AFP hosted Fraud and Anti-Corruption Centre and the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission.
\nAll five were arrested at four residences in the western Sydney suburbs of Lurnea and Liverpool (two locations) early this morning. A number of them are expected to be charged with a range of fraud and proceeds of crime offences, and are likely to appear before Sydney Central Local Court this afternoon. A sixth person will be issued a summons to appear before court to answer related charged at a later date.
\nTaskforce investigators will allege in court that three registered NDIS providers controlled and exploited by those arrested today fraudulently claimed more than $1.1 million in NDIS payments from more than 70 people on disability plans, or those managing their affairs.
\nInvestigations into the true scale of this fraud are continuing, with more than 100 other potential victims identified through the three entities controlled by this syndicate \u2013 Universal Group Australia Pty Ltd, Reliance Disability Services and United Mission.
\nThe three entities are believed to have received more than $2.6 million in NDIS payments since December 2017. Further enquiries are required to determine whether these payments are legitimate or fraudulent.
\nIt is also suspected that syndicate members applied to register another four entities as NDIS providers to claim payments.
\nThe AFP also seized three vehicles \u2013 a Porsche Cayenne, an Audi A3 and Mercedes E63 \u2013 suspected of being purchased with funds fraudulently obtained by syndicate members.
\nAFP Acting Commander Mark McIntyre, Manager Criminal Assets and Fraud and Anti-Corruption, and said police were committed to targeting those deliberately exploiting the Australian community.
\n\u201cThis is an organised criminal activity preying on those that society has chosen to help\u2013 it took money directly out of the pockets of NDIS participants, reducing their ability to obtain crucial assistance and services to help them lead their lives,\u201d he said.
\n\u201cUnfortunately this is not an isolated case, and we will continue to work with our taskforce partners to identify those preying on our needy and bring them to account for their selfish and despicable actions.\u201d
\nActing CEO of the NDIA, Vicki Rundle, said the NDIS Fraud Taskforce was a partnership with a focus on high-risk and serious criminal activity targeting the NDIS.
\n\u201cThe NDIA is committed to working with families impacted by alleged fraud and ensuring they have their funds reinstated in their plans where appropriate,\u201d she said.
\n\u201cWe want to make it clear that fraud of the NDIS will not be tolerated. The NDIA takes the matter of fraud very seriously and will continue to invest in our capability to continue to identify attempts to defraud the scheme\u201d.
\nThe Department of Human Services also has an important role in the NDIS Fraud Taskforce, providing expert capability to detect and investigate organised criminal networks that seek to take advantage of vulnerable members of the community.
\nA 40-year-old man from Lurnea will\u00a0be charged with Obtaining a gain contrary to section 135.(1) of the\u00a0Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth)<\/em>, and Dealing with property reasonably suspected to proceeds of crime contrary to section 400.9(1) of the\u00a0Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth)<\/em>.
\nA\u00a0 35-year-old woman from Lurnea was charged with Obtaining a gain contrary to section 135.(1) of the\u00a0Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth)<\/em>, and Dealing with property reasonably suspected to proceeds of crime contrary to section 400.9(1) of the\u00a0Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth)<\/em>.
\nThe maximum penalties for these offences are 10 years and three years imprisonment, respectively.
\nA 27-year-old man, 30-year-old man and 27-year-old woman \u2013 all from Liverpool \u2013 were\u00a0charged with Dealing with property reasonably suspected to proceeds of crime contrary to section 400.9(1) of the\u00a0Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth).\u00a0<\/em>The maximum penalty for this offence is three years imprisonment.
\nA 22-year-old woman will be issued a court attendance notice relating to an allegation of providing false or misleading information contrary to section 137.1 (1)(c)(i) of the\u00a0Criminal Code (Cth)<\/em>. The maximum penalty for this offence is 12 months imprisonment.\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  A joint agency investigation into an organised criminal syndicate suspected of defrauding the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) of millions of dollars has today resulted in the arrest of five people in western Sydney. Today\u2019s arrests are the result of a six-month investigation by the NDIS Fraud Taskforce \u2013 comprising members of the Australian … Continue reading “Five arrested for million-dollar NDIS fraud”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aussie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2871"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2871\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}