Qld: Nurse invents 18 kids, four identities to defraud Centrelink

AAP General News (Australia)
12-16-2005
Qld: Nurse invents 18 kids, four identities to defraud Centrelink

By Johanna Leggatt

BRISBANE, Dec 16 AAP - A woman invented 18 children and four separate identities to
defraud Centrelink of more than $600,000 in one of the largest scams in the agency's history.

Julia Anne Anderson, 44, who is originally from Stanthorpe, south-west of Brisbane,
but who lives in Cleveland, where the offences were committed, pleaded guilty in the Queensland
District Court today to fraud-related offences which cost Centrelink $622,994.

Prosecutor Shane Hunter said Anderson used her role as a nurse at the Princess Alexandra
Hospital in Brisbane to create false birth certificates for nine sets of twins - 18 children.

The court was told Anderson used the false information to lodge claims for family and
parenting payments with Centrelink over a six year period between March 1999 and February
this year.

It is Australia's biggest Centrelink scam in the past 10 years and the third biggest
in Centrelink's history.

Judge Ian Wylie today sentenced Anderson to seven years in jail, suspended after two
years and nine months.

She has already spent 289 days in custody which is declared time already served.

Mr Hunter said at the height of Anderson's defrauding she was making around $4,732
a fortnight on family payments.

In addition to creating false birth certificates with the forged stamp of hospital
staff, she also created death certificates to paint herself as a grieving widow.

In a number of her identities, Anderson also claimed to be a victim of domestic violence
and alleged her "twins" were sick to elicit sympathy from Centrelink staff.

Furthermore, at the end of 2004, Anderson claimed the $3,000 baby bonus for eight of
her "children".

Anderson's lawyer Carl Heaton said his client embarked on a life of fraud after she
had been left bankrupt by a house fire and a costly divorce.

"(Anderson) has suffered from depression since she was 13 or 14 and has had various
suicide attempts," said Mr Heaton.

But Judge Wylie said this was no excuse.

"A lot of people have had troubled backgrounds but they have resisted a life of crime," he said.

AAP jtl/sc/cjh/sd

KEYWORD: ANDERSON

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