Tamara Elizabeth Maloney guilty to six counts of fraud on WorkCover despite two appeals

A woman on worker’s compensation who had two other jobs pleaded guilty to six fraud charges – then took the case all the way to the Supreme Court, saying the magistrate should have rejected her guilty plea.

A Cairns woman who pleaded guilty to six counts of fraud went on to appeal twice that the magistrate should have rejected her guilty plea because the prosecution didn’t prove she didn’t have a “reasonable excuse” for her failure to reveal she had two jobs while on worker’s compensation.

Tamara Elizabeth Maloney, 42, was convicted in January 2022 on six dishonesty offences in Cairns Magistrates Court.

She received a head sentence of six months’ imprisonment, suspended for 12 months, and was ordered to pay restitution of $15,386 and costs of $5191.

She was sentenced to a three month suspended sentence for charges two to six.

Convictions were recorded.

The court heard she sustained a psychological injury while working at Liquorland at Woree on Australia Day 2020, when a theft occurred, and received worker’s compensation through Coles – the insurer – from January 29 to June 3.

Coles was the insurer through which the woman received worker’s compensation. Picture. Picture: NCA Newswire / Gaye Gerard.

She had started work for Big W on January 20 and after a month off following her injury, she started back again with Ausfuel as a service station attendant.

Her claim was accepted on March 29 and she was backpaid to January.

Maloney had to sign a new form on April 13, agreeing to disclose within 10 days if she started work elsewhere.

The insurer asked her on April 20 if she was working elsewhere and Maloney said no.

She was then asked if she was working for Big W and said she had been doing casual shifts for three weeks.

She was advised to submit pay slips to avoid overpayment and submitted her Big W pay slips, but did not reveal she was also working for Ausfuel.

Maloney’s solicitor submitted a report from psychiatrist Mary-Ellen O’Hare who said Maloney did not intend to mislead the insurer “but rather failed to interpret the forms she was required to fill in an appropriate way”.

The magistrate said the report was hearsay and “really not within the psychiatrist’s field of expertise”.

Maloney appealed to Cairns District Court on the grounds the magistrate erred in not rejecting Maloney’s guilty plea because the absence of “reasonable excuse” was not proved.

The Workers Compensation and Rehabilitation Act states particular acts are taken to be fraud if, without reasonable excuse, the person does not inform the insurer they are working.

Judge Dean Morzone, KC, allowed the appeal in part, ruling that for count two and count three, the sentence was excessive, and ruling that a conviction be recorded but the appellant not be further punished.

He said for counts four, five and six Maloney knowingly gave false or misleading information.

Judge Morzone said he did not accept her argument the psychiatrist’s report created a reasonable possibility she was not acting dishonestly, saying it was “mere speculation”.

“The merits of the appeal were relatively weak,” Judge Morzone said.

Undeterred, Maloney took the case to the Queensland Supreme Court.

Justices Debra Mullins, John Bond and Jean Dalton said there were no contested facts, and by her plea Maloney admitted the offending.

They said the magistrate saw the criminality as low level, was sympathetic to her mental health problems and these were mitigating factors.

Maloney’s application to appeal was thrown out.

She was ordered to pay restitution of $15,386, the previous legal costs, and the legal costs of the worker’s compensation regulator to defend the matter in the Supreme Court.

Originally published as Tamara Elizabeth Maloney guilty to six counts of fraud on WorkCover despite two appeals