Charges:

1 charge of fraudulent obtaining Loss of Earnings benefits pursuant to s116 of the Transport Accident Act 1986 and 1 charge of providing false or misleading information pursuant to s117 of The Transport Accident Act 1986.

Plea: Guilty

Result:

The Magistrate imposed a fine of $7,500 with conviction.  The accused was also ordered to pay compensation in the amount of $28,119.92 and legal costs of $1,424.

Remarks:

The accused sustained right foot and left hand injuries in a transport accident in 2018 requiring surgical treatment. Prior to the accident the accused was a self-employed electrical contractor. Proactive review of the accused’s claim along with surveillance identified that the business was still operating.  The accused was also shown to be driving, despite reporting being unable to drive by reason of his injuries. During this time the Accused continued to submit certificates of capacity declaring that he had no capacity to work and that he had not returned to any form of paid or voluntary employment.  The accused’s defence solicitor noted that a number of the jobs were residual work that had already been commenced prior to the transport accident but conceded that numerous were commenced afterwards, nevertheless it was conceded that he had continued to work and had therefore defrauded the TAC. The Magistrates indicating that if the accused had had priors, a term of imprisonment would have been imposed.  The Magistrate also remarked that the Medical Profession really needed to take more responsibility in their certification of people’s work capacity and that systems such as TAC and others are all based on trust and that a message should go out to the community. The Magistrate commented this was in his view very serious offending and reiterated that if the accused had had any prior history he would have had no option but to impose a term of imprisonment and that he would definitely be imposing a conviction today and that but for the plea of guilty he would have imposed a community corrections order.

Restitution:	$28,119.92
Total Fines:	$7,500
Disbursements:	$
Statutory Costs:	$
Professional Costs:	$1,424

Stay: 28/03/2023