R v Jeffrey

[2011] NSWDC 138

District Court

New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation:	R v JEFFREY [2011] NSWDC 138
Hearing dates:	7 April 2011
Decision date:	07 April 2011
Jurisdiction:	Criminal
Before:	Berman SC DCJ
Decision:	For each of four matters sentenced to a fixed term of imprisonment of 18 months.
Catchwords:	CRIMINAL LAW - Sentence - Defrauding the Commonwealth - Dishonestly obtain benefit by deception - Lengthy period of offending
Category:	Sentence
Parties:	The Crown Brian Jeffrey
Representation:	Mr S Molloy - The offender Director of Public Prosecutions - Cth Legal Aid Commission
File Number(s):	2010/129566 2010/130079

SENTENCE

1. HIS HONOUR: Brian Jeffrey appears for sentence today after a lengthy period of offending. His correct name is Brian Jeffrey but when he was a much younger man he created a false identity, Brian Wilson, using his mother's maiden name. This was at a time when he was asked by a prospective employer what name he wanted to work under and for reasons he could not explain Mr Jeffrey decided that he would work under a false name. He said in Court that the best he could do to explain that decision was that he was a "goose head". That decision is of importance because of what Mr Jeffrey later did with his false identity. In short, he began to use that identity to collect pensions to which he was not entitled. Ultimately what he ended up doing was receiving pensions in both his correct name and his false name. Whilst he was entitled to the pensions in his correct name, he was not entitled to the pensions in his false name. Although it was one continuing offence, it has led to four offences due to a change in the legislation regarding the offence and a change in the nature of the pension that he received.

1. The offender first lodged claims for disability support pension in the name Brian Wilson as far back ago as 1991. He supported his claim for that pension by various documents, including documents showing a bank account in that name, tax file number, tax assessments and a certificate from his doctor which referred to injuries which does appear Mr Jeffrey genuinely suffered from.

1. He was very careful to ensure that it would be difficult to match his two identities, by having his pension paid into a different bank account and having correspondence going to a different address from that from where he truly lived. His offending extended all the way through to September 2009 when the authorities finally caught up with him. Over that time he has obtained more than $175,000 to which he was not entitled.

1. His first two offences are of defrauding the Commonwealth. They relate to a figure of $65,380 and his next two offences are of dishonestly obtaining a benefit involving almost $110,000. At first he received the disability support pension, as I have mentioned, but then when he became old enough the pension was converted to an age pension. That explains why there are four offences…