Following a lengthy 10-week trial in the Supreme Court of Western Australia, seven men involved in trying to smuggle 182kgs (145.6kgs pure) of methamphetamine onto a remote beach in Western Australia, were collectively jailed for over 164 years.
On 18 June 2018, 35-year-old Purdy McGee was given an effective sentence of 2 years' imprisonment in the Brisbane District Court, after pleading guilty to receiving $89,238.88 in Centrelink benefits to which she was not entitled.
On 6 June 2018, 48-year-old Artur Wojcik, a Polish national, was sentenced to 9 months’ imprisonment, in addition to his existing non-parole period of 6 years and 8 months for importing 2.29kg of pure cocaine, after he was sentenced for escaping from Mannus Correctional Facility in Tumbarumba in early April
On 1 June 2018, the former Chief Executive Officer of abalone farm Australian Bight Abalone Ltd (ABA) Andrew Ferguson, was sentenced to 3 years, 6 months’ imprisonment with a non-parole period of 1 year for providing false or misleading information to the company’s board and potential investors.
On 22 May 2018, the former general manager for a Perth-based livestock exporter was sentenced in the District Court of Western Australia to 18 months’ jail, suspended immediately and released on a $20,000 recognisance order to be of good behaviour for 18 months, for falsifying official documents that saw some 22,000 sheep slaughtered in Pakistan.
On 7 May 2018, general practitioner Humphry Gomes was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment in the Supreme Court in Hobart, after pleading guilty to defrauding Medicare of $175,266.50.
Gomes, 54, made 2349 claims for services he did not provide, over four periods between May 2011 and July 2013. He submitted some claims while he was overseas.
On 29 March 2018, 67-year-old Michael Issakidis was sentenced to 10 years’ jail in the Supreme Court of New South Wales, for his role in a $135 million tax fraud and money laundering case, the largest ever successfully prosecuted in Australia.
Issakidis and his co-accused Anthony Dickson masterminded a corporate tax scam that netted them more than $63 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.
On 14 November 2017, 61-year-old Voli Della Bosca was sentenced in the Cairns District Court to two years’ imprisonment after he was found guilty by a jury of dishonestly causing a risk of a loss to the Commonwealth.
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.
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 28 August 2017, 27 year old Ali Al-Talebi was sentenced in the District Court of NSW to a total effective sentence of imprisonment for 12 years, with a non-parole period of 9 years, for his role in sending funds overseas in an attempt to support the Islamic State terrorist organisation.
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.
On 22 June 2017, Rishi Khandelwal, 34, was sentenced to three years and two months' imprisonment in the Canberra Supreme Court, after he stole more than $1 million by using overseas students' names to make false tax claims between 2008 and 2010.
On 21 December 2016, 55-year-old Tanne Joyce was sentenced to six months imprisonment after he pleaded guilty in the Perth Magistrates Court of failing to lodge five income tax returns between 2010 and 2014.
This appearance in court was the third time Joyce had been prosecuted for failing to lodge these tax returns.
