By Matt Bungard
A western Sydney man has been arrested for his involvement in an alleged fake marriage scam, which has been linked to an alleged childcare fraud syndicate.
The latest arrest comes after Strike Force Mercury, which was established in July 2018 to investigate fraudulent activities targeting family daycare operations, arrested 13 people on Wednesday, including two ringleaders - a 46-year-old woman and a 29-year-old man.
Detectives now allege that the female ringleader had married a 38-year-old man, who was arrested at Auburn police station this morning, despite not being in a relationship - and that the pair had submitted false and misleading documents and staged photographs in order to secure the man's partner visa.
He was granted strict conditional bail and is due to appear at Burwood Local Court on Thursday, November 12.
“During investigations into CTP Green Slip scams, we learnt that organised crime syndicates will use their tried and tested fraudulent methods in attempts to defraud a variety of other schemes,” said Assistant Commissioner Stuart Smith, NSW Police's State Crime Commander.
“This time around, investigations into family daycare fraud have uncovered attempted and actual frauds against schemes like JobSeeker, and immigration laws" he said.
Mr Smith said that these syndicates aimed to exploit government schemes that had been established to relieve financial pressure.
“Not only are those in need potentially missing out, but every single taxpayer has to foot the bill when fraudsters cheat these schemes,” he said.
In NSW Parliament's upper house on Thursday, shadow treasurer Walt Secord questioned the Minister for Education and Early Childhood Learning Sarah Mitchell on what action the government was taking to monitor and audit childcare facilities.
Ms Mitchell said that the extent and scale of the alleged fraud uncovered was concerning.
"I commend the work of the task force to date in addressing that sophisticated criminal behaviour - and make no mistake, it is sophisticated criminal behaviour," she said.
"I look forward to continuing to share information with the police and the Commonwealth department following the resolution of the operation to address fraud within the sector concerning the childcare subsidy."
The minister said that NSW had the toughest entry requirements of any state for family daycare providers, and that a revamped approval process which has been brought in last year had resulted in a significant reduction of family daycare provider and service approvals.
"The community can continue to rest assured that we will act decisively whenever the safety, health and wellbeing of children are compromised and whenever breaches of the national law are identified that threaten the educational and developmental outcomes of all children," she said.
"I also again make the point that New South Wales does not provide any funding to the family daycare sector."
When asked by Mr Secord what steps had been taken to ensure that innocent children who had been caught up in fraudulent daycares would still get the care and education they required, Ms Mitchell said she had asked for a more detailed briefing from her department and would take the question on notice.
Investigations under Strike Force Mercury are continuing.
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