just to update everyone on what happening, i finally got the information that centrelink are charging me for and some things are completely wrong. It says i have a 22 month old toddler, which i dont, i have a newborn baby who is only a few weeks old. the ages they have for my older 2 children are correct. and also the amounts of my income ae completely different as well from previously letters from centrelink! very strange, im going to see my lawyer tomorrow!!
I feel for you, my mate was just done for Centrelink fraud in the amount of $17K and he got a 150 hour community service order. It seemed completely over the top considering he works for an extremly busy government agency and is as far from a criminal as you could get!
I work within the corrective system and can honestly say that its highly unlikely that you will get gaol time for this, especially for a first offence. However, your lawyer is correct, you should plead guilty because that is the black and white of it - you received the money so you are guilty. What you need to stress to the Court is that you did not intend to defaud Centrelink. Another strategy that will work in your favour is obtaining testimonials from as many reputable friends and family members that you can, who can tell the Court what an honest, well meaning citizen that you are. Write a submission to the Magistrate outlining how mortified you are at your error of judgement and how you made immediate moves to repair the mistake by way of repayment. I don't think it would have made a difference whether you paid the debt in bulk or if you stuck to the minimum repayments - I would have thought that it would look even dodgier if you had the money to repay $14K in a lump sum than in small doses!!!
Good advice but i'd be going through their evidence with a fine tooth comb before agreeing to an amount. They make an amazing amount of stuff ups.Dont leave it to your lawyer,he may not have time to be that thorough.
Hi like you confused I am set to go to court on Nov 11. I have hired a barister costing me over 2000 yet I recieved a phone call today advising me that the news isnt good that centrelink are pushing for a jail sentence & I need to expect at least 2 months. I owed 9000 & have been paying off 100 a week for the past 2 months with a letter from centrelink ageeeing for the amount however apparently that means nothing. Also the fact I have a so due to grad from defence force acedamy in Dec & a son getting straight a+ awards at boarding school & having a great career apparently they would rather loose me my job so its harder to pay them back n have to pull my son out of great education & maybe loose our family home. I have done nothing but cry all day & written my sons letters to tell them how much I love them for my husband to send them when I go to jail. This is so unfair.
godihopenot --- have u got a criminal history?? my lawyer has said that i wont go to jail that most i will get is a fine or community service. i am so nervous still but im glad i have picked up the mistakes before the court date. was yours a similar situation?? Im getting character references from ppl i worked with through the time period and my lawyer suggested as well to get someone close to me to write a reference saying how i opened up to them about the situation and how stress etc i am about it all. have you seen the briefing the dpp are taking into court?? please keep me update with how everything goes for you!!
godihope not .. why jail i was in court 2 weeks ago and it was for 8k i got a criminal record but i also got a good behavour bond,, yours is not much more then mine .... where you in the same vote as me working and made miss calulations of pay (i devided my yearly income into 26 weeks ,which happened to be wrong by centrelink which in the result led to over payments)but was still under the yearly figure..how will work find out unless you tell them, i havent told my work if they find out im in the same vote and will lose my job as i work in the financial business. will it make a difference if you got a loan and paid it back before court
my friend is due to go to court next week for roughly 13,000k in overpayments due to incorrect reporting. he has seen a solicitor and is has been paying back the debt for over a year now. The solicitor said, however that centrelink will not allow him to see the information they have regarding their case against him until the morning he goes to court!!! he is freaking out and i hear a lot of people mentioning that he has the right to view the evidence against him but who does he turn to when they wont even give it to his solicitor?? is there a higher power he can speak to to force the release of this information? please if anyone can help would love to hear from you ....
I guess he can try the commonwealth ombudsman. I always thought that you had the right to see evidence against you 2 weeks before the court date.
On what grounds are they refusing to supply it to his solicitor?? If they only get to see it that morning, then I would think any reasonable solicitor would just inform the magistrate that this info has been refused & call for an adjournment to go over the facts & figures with his client.
As has been said earlier in this thread, centrelink are pretty good at getting their facts & figures wrong.
hey i have been told that you apply to centrelink for all the information through the freedom of information on ur account, there is a link on centrelinks web site. My solicitor has said if we dont get the information we are requesting at the moment then next step is to apply to see my whole file. Maybe your friend should see a different solicitor. My solicitor is getting my court case adjorned tomorrow cause we still havent received all the information from them, especially with all the amounts are different. Get your friend to look right through all the information that he has received from centrelink and compare it to the information from the director of public prosercutions which will be the ones that centrelink have passed all the information on to take to court. Thats the information my solicitor has told me!
Im still so nervous about tomorrow, but i will keep you all updated cause it seems to be happening alot. I am so glad i have picked up on the mistakes!
Centrelink fraud is by far the most common topic discussed at Magistrates court. For you to go to jail on Centrelink fraud charges you would:
1. Got a very large some of money, over 10 K +
2. Had prior criminal behavior of similar circumstances
3. Pleaded not guilty
4. Represented yourself in court
Dont listen to what the prosecution threaten you with, the neither do cops or Centrelink impose any penalties, its up to the judge to do that.
So if you think you will go to jail on Centrelink related fraud crime and its your first offence, relax, community service or good behavior bond it is, but you will need to pay back what you took.
Hi, I have just been given a summons to attend court for centrelink fraud of 20+k for rent assistance. I am going to plead not guilty & fight this as my circumstances in which this happen is complex by having an ex husband putting the property where I reside in joint names to protect his investment for his children in case of his death or partners claiming on his estate. In agreeing to this my maintence payments from him was now gone as it was his way of me paying rent.
Now as far as I was concerned I was paying rent, I was recieving no payments from him, and now I am the one out of pocket and was claiming what I thought was right.
I explained it all to centrelink but was ask for me to come in for an interview but they told me first to contact a legal agency (number was provided by centrelink)I did this and was told do not attend any meetings with centrelink as this is only an interview to help them gather more evidence on me. I rang centrelink & told them I have been advised not to attend, centrelink said we will let you know either way if my case will be passed on to the DPP.(centrelink sent a letter saying they passed it on to the DPP)
Well that was about 6 weeks ago and I have just recieved a letter from the DPP with a court date.
Now I am going to request my complete file from centrelink (FOI)freedom of information and go through it with a fine tooth comb and I will keep requesting files that I find missing.
I am going to get this property out of my name as I have no claim on it anyway (i know i could but i don't need the hassles because it was not mine in anyway, just a safe guard for him to leave for his children)which I thought was a good idea at the time.
Then I want my maintence back from him and I will start paying him rent and then claim it back in rent assistance from centrelink.
That is if he does'nt sell the house, the thing is the security for the kids not moving from place to place is why I have'nt packed up & moved.
My ex does not live with us, he has his own place.
I don't want to go to gaol but if it means by proving my case instead of taking the easy way and plead guilty (which is usually recommended)I will have to do the time & appeal any convictions which the judge may pass down.
If you feel your in the right and no wrong doing was intentional then fight the charge.
Let the DPP produce their evidence as most will be unprepared because of the high percentages of people pleading guilty so no evidence has to be proved as you have convicted yourself by your plea.
I will keep you informed in what I discover. Keep your chin up
well court got ajorned and we got the evidence from the dpp which all looks really strange, what they have given us is a file with a list of all the times i logged into centrelink website to report my income but they dont show us what i actually reported, it says on the evidence that the web capture is not available for all the times they are saying that i reported my income incorrectly. My solicitor has said that it is really strange that it has show up like that and we really need to track down these web captures because that is proper evidence.
I hope that makes sense. Once again im so glad i have pick up on mistakes, i got back to court on the 13th of january. Lets see what i can find out between now and then
If the only evidence they are giving you is log on times with no figures, then they must still be withholding evidence that you are entitled to to mount a proper defense.
they must have access to actual amounts reported or they wouldn't be chasing you... would they?
yeh thats why we think its really strange, you would think they would have the actual amounts with the reporting as proof. It makes me wonder how many other ppl have gone through the same thing and not looked into it and have just said they were guitly! I am guessing they feel the interview i had with them etc might be enough proof, its strange 2 different letters from centrelink show different amounts i delcared and earnt compared to the amounts the dpp have. There is a big different between the centrelink letters and the dpp's briefing they are taking into court!
I work with people who are unemployed and I also support people who are disabled and working. Imagine trying to explain to a person with learning disabilities who struggled to finish year 9 that they have to report their weekly wage, and estimate their yearly wage, and report any other income, and what other income is meant by, that they have to report rent changes, changes to any aspect of their life, any people moving in or out of their accomodation etc etc etc. Centrelinks requireents are so bloody confusing that they beg people to stuff up. Then if you defraud the Governent "God help you". Badluck I have prosecuted matters where people comitted offences of extreme violence and got less penalty than you, without conviction. In fact I recall being in court and showing video footage of a young male straddle an unconcious male on the ground and smash his head repeatedly, 11 times in fact, into the pavement. The victtim, 9 months in rehab and is now disabled though able to look after himself with assistance from his carer. Offender, who was already on a Bond for a violent assault the year before - a further good behavior bond, extended for 3 years to 5 years in total, fine and anger management classes. The next year he did the same thing again and hung himself in jail because he was concerned that he was going to get a long sentence. Oh the wonders of the legal system!!!
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