R v Blackburn

[2023] NSWDC 1

District Court

New South Wales

• Amendment notes

Medium Neutral Citation:

R v Blackburn [2023] NSWDC 1

Hearing dates:

22 November 2022

Decision date:

03 February 2023

Jurisdiction:

Criminal

Before:

Colefax SC DCJ

Decision:

Aggregate term of imprisonment of 4 years with a non-parole period of 2 years - reparation order in the sum of $314,253.60

Catchwords:

CRIME - SENTENCE - obtain a financial advantage by deception - dishonestly obtain financial advantage by deception from the Commonwealth of Australia

Legislation Cited:

Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth), s 134.2(1)

Crimes Act 1914 (Cth), s 21B

Category:

Sentence

Parties:

Rex (Crown)

Ms Amanda Leigh Blackburn (Offender)

Representation:

Mr Roucek (Crown Prosecutor)

Mr McAullife (Counsel for the offender)

File Number(s):

2020/00355786

Publication restriction:

Nil

1. Amanda Leigh Blackburn, you appear for sentence in relation to two principal offences.

2. The first principal offence is that, in the approximately 4 and a half years between 25 March 2014 and 3 August 2019, you obtained a financial advantage by deception.

3. In essence, this involved you, as the practice manager of a physiotherapy practice in St Clair, New South Wales, submitting 2,244 claims to Medicare for 2,579 patient services that were not provided by that practice. The total amount of payments made by the Commonwealth for those false claims to bank accounts to which you had access or control was $127,530.35. This is sequence 1.

4. The second principal offence is that, in the approximately 18 months between 8 August 2019 and 2 February 2021, you obtained another financial advantage by deception.

5. In essence, this again involved you, as that practice manager, submitting 1,403 claims to Medicare for 3,438 patient services that were not provided by that practice. The total amount of payments made by the Commonwealth for those false claims to banks accounts to which you had access or control was $186,703.25. This is sequence 2.

6. The total amount of payments which you received by deception over almost 7 years was $314,253.60.

7. Sequences 1 and 2 each involves a contravention of s134.2(1) of the Criminal Code 1995(Cth). The maximum penalty for each offence is imprisonment for 10 years and / or (in the case of sequence 1) a maximum fine of $102,000.00 and (in the case of sequence 2) a maximum fine of $126,000.00.

8. Insofar as sequence 2 is concerned, you have asked me to take into account one matter on a s16BA Schedule, which I have certified. That is a matter of attempting to obtain a financial advantage by deception.

9. In essence, this matter relates to you, as that practice manager, attempting to obtain payment from Medicare for 383 claims for 880 patient services which had not been provided by that practice. The total amount of these attempted payments was $47,805.22 and related to the period 8 August 2019 to 2 February 2021. This is sequence 3.

10. Your offending over that lengthy period of time was brought about by you deliberating abusing Medicare’s bulk billing of claims process – a process which is highly reliant on the…