Emily Jane Walker faces deportation for her part in $18m computer hacking scam

Her tattoo says “speak no evil”, but this UK ex-pat now faces deportation for helping her lover run an $18m computer hacking scam.

The tattoo on Emily Jane Walker’s right thigh reads “speak no evil” – but she ignored the ink on her skin and helped her lover try to siphon $18 million from businesses around the country.

While Jason Bran Lees engineered the computer virus that made the massive fraud possible, and an interstate co-offender helped hack computers, Walker was the scam’s bookkeeper.

She maintained the complex network of disposable SIM cards and false bank accounts opened with the stolen identities of real people, numbering in the hundreds, that filtered fleeced funds into online cryptocurrency wallets.

On Thursday, the District Court said that was but a glimpse into the “devastating” harm caused by the couple, meaning nothing less than immediate jail was adequate punishment.

Emily Jane Walker, left, and Jason Bran Lees, right, outside court. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Brenton Edwards.

Walker, originally from the UK, wept as Judge Joanne Tracey noted her inevitable deportation, once paroled, was no reason to show mercy.

“The very real importance of general deterrence cannot be devalued … the community has an interest in the denunciation of, and proper punishment for, this type of very difficult-to-detect offending,” she said.

“It’s apparent that, were it not for the significant efforts of SA Police, your offending may well have been ongoing with greater losses to each of the victims.”

Lees and Walker prior to their arrest. Picture: Facebook.

Walker and Lees outside court. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Brenton Edwards.

Walker, 29, and Lees, 33, both of Seaton, pleaded guilty to multiple online fraud charges including possessing a computer virus to commit serious dishonesty offences.

They targeted, breached and siphoned the payrolls of dozens of small Australian businesses, and stood to net a $1.15m share of the crimes.

Their co-offender Adam Jones, an Adelaide ex-pat who is based in NSW, is already serving an 11-year sentence for his involvement in the scam.

In sentencing on Thursday, Judge Tracey noted both Lees and Walker had been addicted to methylamphetamine, but said that was no excuse for their crimes.

“Whatever drugs you were consuming did not impact your ability to offend in such a premeditated, sophisticated and targeted way,” she said.

“Your offending had a devastating impact on your victims’ businesses, their financial security, their health and wellbeing.

“They worry about the risk of something like this happening again, and what the long-term effects of having their identities stolen will be on their future financial security.”

She jailed Lees for 8 1/2 years, with a five-year non-parole period, and Walker for four years and 10 months, with a 34-month non-parole period.