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Woman convicted for falsely declaring her income to Centrelink

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A Sydney woman, 46-year-old Thi Thanh Thuy Phan, was convicted on 12 December 2017 in the Parramatta Local Court to two counts of engaging in conduct to obtain a financial advantage after pleading guilty to receiving $20,030.59 in Centrelink benefits to which she was not entitled.

Between 3 February and 5 April 2016, Ms Phan provided false information about her income to claim a total of $10,409.62 in Single Parenting benefits and $9,620.97 in Newstart Allowance.

  • Parenting Payment Single is paid to people who are not partnered and who have a dependent child under 8 years in their care.
  • Newstart Allowance is paid to people who are unemployed and looking for work to assist them in finding suitable employment .

During these periods Ms Phan intentionally misrepresented her true circumstances about her employment and regular income by not declaring the correct income from two positions of employment she held to the Department of Human Services. As a result she received welfare benefits she knew she was not entitled to.

Over the period Ms Phan claimed the benefits, she continued to conceal her employment from Centrelink officials, as she was employed and being paid by two employers with a combined income of $88,895.08 she had not declared.

The court ordered Ms Phan to repay the overpayment of $20,030.59.

CDPP Media contact: communications@cdpp.gov.au or 02 6206 5708.

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Charges/sentence

On 12 December 2017, Thi Thanh Thuy Phan was convicted and was sentenced to 100 hours community service work in relation to:

  • 2 counts of engaging in conduct to obtain a financial advantage from a Commonwealth entity, contrary to section 135.2(1) of the Criminal Code 1995 (Cth).