Former Australian of the Year Jean Madden hit with new fraud charges

A QUEENSLAND Young Australian of the Year has been accused of ripping off her charity to the tune of more than $150,000, allegedly using donations to pay for her personal expenses.

Jean Ellen Madden outside court in February last year.

A QUEENSLAND Young Australian of the Year has been accused of ripping off her charity to the tune of more than $150,000, allegedly using donations to pay for her personal expenses.

Jean Madden, who founded homeless welfare charity Street Swags, was charged with seven counts of fraud relating to transactions allegedly made between early 2015 to mid-2016.

The 38-year-old had previously been charged with a number of offences over similar allegations but those seven charges were dropped late last year.

Police officers yesterday charged Madden with seven fresh fraud offences relating to the alleged misuse of about $150,000 of charity funding.

Jean Madden, with one of her Street Swags, in November 2013.

“The charges relate to using charity funds to pay for personal expenditures,” a police spokesman said.

Madden vehemently denied previous charges against her and her lawyer Kris Jahnke yesterday said she would be fighting the seven new allegations in court.

In a video posted online late last year after seven charges were dropped, Madden slammed the allegations as a “two-year witch hunt” saying the case against her was “malicious and downright stupid”.

“The faceless men behind this destruction of my life and the good I created in the world still haven’t found anything on me because I’ve never done anything wrong,” she said in the video.

“The charges, this police harassment and the character assassination that I suffered over these two years have been traumatising for myself and those who have loved me through it.”

Madden was named Queensland’s Young Australian of the Year in 2010 after founding Street Swags, a charity which distributes lightweight waterproof bedding for the homeless which converts into a bag during the day.

The innovative swags are sewn by prisoners, rolled and packaged by schoolchildren and distributed by community groups and volunteers across Australia.

In 2010, Madden also became the first Australian winner of the world’s largest design award, the Index People’s Choice Award.

The case will come before Brisbane Magistrates Court later this month.