Media Release
Sydney welfare cheat goes to jail
24 August 2007
A 36-year-old man who used three false identities to defraud around $115,000 in welfare payments has been sentenced to four years imprisonment by the Sydney District Court today.
Mohammad Charkawi, from Sydney, pleaded guilty to defrauding the Commonwealth and was today ordered to serve at least two years and six months behind bars.
The charges relate to Charkawi receiving Centrelink payments with three created identities between July 1995 and May 2004. The court also heard Charkawi was working, and did not declare his income to Centrelink.
Minister for Human Services, Senator Chris Ellison, said Centrelink investigators uncovered the fraud after sophisticated identity fraud programs highlighted suspicious similarities between the false identities.
This lead was followed by a comprehensive investigation that involved optical surveillance and the execution of a search warrant by the Australian Federal Police at Charkawi’s home, which uncovered fraudulent identity documents.
"Identity fraud is planned, calculated and involves deliberate attempts to rip-off the system. Perpetrators typically exert a high degree of effort and care in establishing and maintaining fake claims and trying to avoid getting caught,” Senator Ellison said.
Identity fraud is a growing threat throughout the world and Centrelink has progressively improved its capacity to detect and identify cases within the Australian welfare system.
“Centrelink’s Fraud Investigation Teams use purpose-built data-matching programs that crosscheck customer records with historical data and other government agencies to detect any unusual similarities. These programs also search and identify anomalies in individual customer records.”
Senator Ellison said the Australian Government is committed to stamping out social security fraud and is experiencing excellent results in cracking down on welfare cheats.
Centrelink conducts regular reviews of customers’ records to ensure they’re receiving the right payments.
Welfare cheats are discovering that if they steal from the taxpayer, they’re the ones that are going to pay in the end. Today’s sentence shows just how seriously the courts treat people who rort the system.
“Australian taxpayers have an expectation that Centrelink, as guardian of the public purse, will take swift and thorough action in situations like this. After all, these welfare cheats are stealing money that could be used to help the genuinely vulnerable in our community.”
During the 2005-06 financial year, the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions successfully prosecuted 2,822 cases of welfare fraud to the value of more than $34 million in payments.
Media Contact: Michael Barrett – (02) 6277 7200 or 0419 424 359