No Jail for Fraud Charges Totalling Over $1million

Astor Legal last week appeared at Parramatta Local Court to represent a client who was facing serious fraud charges totalling over $1million.

Our client was the director of a home building corporation at the time of the offences. In the course of her job, the corporation was required to obtain building certificates before commencing work.

Unfortunately, our client was overwhelmed and unable to obtain the certificates within the timeframe required. Following this, she panicked and falsified the building certificates. She did this for three jobs in 2014, 2016 and 2017.

Eventually her offending was discovered by NSW Fair Trading. They conducted an interview with her where she confessed and made full admissions. When asked what she thought would be the punishment, she said, “going to gaol”.

Ultimately she was charged with 16 fraud charges under the Crimes Act 1900 and the Home Building Act 1989.

We were able to negotiate with prosecutors which resulted in her only pleading guilty to 8 counts.

We then began preparing her subjective case which included a psychologist report as well as evidence of numerous awards she had received as a surf life saver.

This – in combination with the persuasive advocacy of our Parramatta criminal lawyers – ultimately resulted in our client avoiding a term of full-time imprisonment.

She was sentenced to an Intensive Corrections Order (ICO) for 16 months. This was an exceptional result as generally fraud offences totalling over $100,000 result in full-time imprisonment.

Our client was overjoyed with the result as she is able to enjoy her freedom.