Case Reports

On 18 April 2018, 23-year-old Canadian national Melina Roberge was sentenced to eight years’ imprisonment, to serve a minimum four years and nine months, after pleading guilty to her part in smuggling nearly 72 kilograms of cocaine into Australia on board a luxury cruise liner in August 2016, with an estimated value of $21.5 million.

On 1 March 2018, Mr Raban Alou was sentenced by the Supreme Court of NSW in Parramatta to 44 years’ imprisonment, with a non-parole period of 33 years, for abetting, counselling or procuring the commission of a terrorist act.  Mr Alou sourced and supplied the handgun which was used to shoot dead NSW Police accountant Mr Curtis Cheng as he left Parramatta Police Headquarters in 2015. 

On 9 February 2018, 74-year-old Malcolm Sanders was sentenced in the Townsville District Court to five years imprisonment after pleading guilty to 29 charges—20 counts of obtaining financial advantage by deception, four counts of attempting to obtaining financial advantage by deception and five counts of using false documents to obtain a gain.

Perth man, 49-year-old, Manther Samardali was sentenced on 24 November 2017 in the District Court of Western Australia to three years and two months’ imprisonment for smuggling tobacco into Australia and obstructing a Commonwealth official.

On 2 November 2017, Emma Louise Pearce was convicted and fined $180 for failing to vote at the federal election held on 2 July 2016. This is the maximum penalty that can be imposed for this offence.

On 21 July 2017, 28-year-old Nicholas Hunter (a pseudonym) was sentenced in the County Court of Victoria in Melbourne after he pleaded guilty to a number of Commonwealth and State child pornography offences.

On 15 September 2017, Kristy Lee Wessing, 36, was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment in the Supreme Court in Hobart, after pleading guilty to receiving $160,766 in Centrelink benefits to which she was not entitled. The maximum penalty on each count is five years’ imprisonment and/or a fine of $33,000.

Former co-director and shareholder of Adelaide Lending Centre  57 year old Michael Samra of Plympton Park, Adelaide was sentenced in the District Court of South Australia to 8 years and 9 months’ imprisonment for deceiving investors and obtaining funds  totalling $1.902 million.

Queensland women 38-year-old, Samantha Kissier was sentenced to six months imprisonment on 31 July 2017 for dishonestly obtaining $35,015.53 in single parenting payments over a period of three years and eight months.  Ms Kisser has been ordered to repay Centrelink the amount of $31,318.53.

On 10 July 2017, marriage celebrant Diane Caratozzolo-Waddington 58, was convicted in the Rockingham Magistrates Court of solemnising a marriage of a Rockingham couple in October 2015 in circumstances where the bride could not give consent.   

On 5 May 2017, Luke Brabin, 37, was convicted in Southport Magistrates Court on the Gold Coast of running an online poker service through the website play.pokerasiapacific.com. He was fined $10,000 for this offence. It is the first conviction under this provision of the Interactive Gambling Act.

In April 2016, after a four-week trial at the John Maddison Tower in Sydney, former company director Steven Hill was convicted of six counts of fraudulently misappropriating investor funds totaling $281,000.