Elissa Alayne Carricato, 34, of Shepparton, pleaded guilty in Shepparton Magistrates’ Court to 25 counts of obtaining property by deception, two counts of dishonestly retaining stolen goods and theft.
The court was told Carricato fraudulently claimed $22,600 in COVID-19 pandemic leave disaster payments that were implemented in June 2021 or disaster recovery payments after NSW floods in February 2022.
The COVID-19 payments related to not having to isolate and not being able to work, while the flood relief payments related to alleged damage to property in the NSW floods.
She claimed 23 payments of between $750 and $1400 from Services Australia.
Five of the payments were claimed for having time off work for having COVID-19 between April 18 and July 21, 2022.
The remainder were flood-related and made between May 10 and August 8, 2022.
Each was valued at between $1000 and $1400 and related to damaged vehicles, fencing and sheds.
The claims were submitted in several different people’s names and addresses, but each time the money was to be deposited in Carricato’s bank account.
Prosecutor Senior Constable Kerrie Thomson said on a separate occasion, Carricato used a stolen bank card to buy two bottles of alcohol, worth $138, from BWS in Shepparton on December 9, 2022, before returning later and requesting a refund for the alcohol.
She and a co-accused man also claimed a $508 credit from Target in Shepparton for items they had not actually purchased on November 9, 2023.
Five days later, on November 14, 2023, a mobile phone was stolen from a soccer ground in St George’s Rd, Shepparton.
Three days later Carricato and the same co-accused man went to Cash Converters and asked about a loan for the stolen phone.
The court also heard that on November 21, 2023, Carricato and the same co-accused cashed in $946 from a poker machine at Shepparton RSL when the person who was using the machine stepped away to answer a phone call.
The prosecutor also told the court the co-accused man and a woman — who police say was Carricato — used a stolen cheque at WB Hunter store in Shepparton to buy a Makita toolkit worth almost $1580.
Carricato’s defence barrister David Carolan said his client did not have any prior criminal convictions, had worked as an insurance broker and lived “an excellent, blameless life until 2020”.
He said after that time she had split with her partner, her life had spiralled, and she had started using drugs.
Mr Carolan said Carricato had paid off some of her debt to Services Australia, but still owed about $19,000.
Magistrate Olivia Trumble said the Services Australia offending was “not particularly sophisticated” as she had used her name, as well as family members and friends, and had used her own bank account details.
“Once they worked out what was going on, it was pretty easy to trace,” she said.
Ms Trumble sentenced Carricato to a 16-month community corrections order.
She said prison was not appropriate, as Carricato had no prior criminal history, had remained offence-free for about 14 months while she was waiting for her matters to be finalised in court, was open to receiving drug treatment and would experience a deterioration of her mental health in prison.
“You are clearly someone who wants to get treatment and address your issues,” Ms Trumble said.
“This is a very serious incident.
“It’s a large number of deceptions over a long period.
“The only thing that saved you from prison is you hadn’t come before the court before.”
Ms Trumble ordered that Carricato complete 100 hours of community work as part of her community corrections order, but said that all the time could be spent either in drug abuse or mental health treatment, or by doing community work hours.
Carricato was also ordered to pay $1579.40 in compensation to WB Hunter.
A ruling is also expected to be made in the future that she pay back all the money to Services Australia, but it could not be made on the day of the sentence as the exact amount yet to be paid back was not known.
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