Financial Crimes Squad detectives have charged a former WA Country Health Service employee in relation to fraudulent claims for paid leave.
It will be alleged the employee, who held a senior management position in the agency, provided false information to his employer that resulted in him being granted extended paid leave from duty from March 2020 to care for an ill family member whom he had stated lived overseas. The employee later resigned from the agency in June 2020, effective at the end of August 2020.
The WA Country Health Service later identified the man had actually commenced employment with a private sector company. Upon learning of this the WA Country Health Service referred the case to WA Police Force and the Corruption and Crime Commission.
It will be alleged the employee had never left Australia and actually commenced employment with the private sector company in March 2020, in breach of his employment terms. Paid leave of various amounts was paid to the employee over 11 fortnightly payments between March and August 2020, totalling $13,823.18. Had the fraudulent information not been provided the employee would not have been eligible for paid leave.
On Wednesday 21 October 2020 detectives from WA Police Force’s Financial Crimes Squad executed a search warrant at the former employee’s Duncraig residence.
A 44-year-old man from Duncraig has been charged with 11 counts of ‘Gained Benefit by Fraud’ and is due to appear in the Joondalup Magistrates Court today, Monday 2 November 2020.
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