Street Swags founder Jean Madden fighting to clear her name after fraud charges dropped

Jean Madden went from Queensland Young Australian of the Year to lining up for the dole as a result of a failed fraud prosecution. Now the Street Swags founder is fighting to clear her name after what she says was years of “character assassination”.

STREET Swags founder Jean Madden is on a mission to clear her name after a three-year “character assassination” where charity fraud charges were levelled against her.

Speaking exclusively to The Courier-Mail days after being exonerated of allegations she ripped off Street Swags to the tune of $150,000 in order to pay for her personal expenses, Ms Madden has described the “absolute social shunning” and her very public fall from grace that came as a result of the failed prosecution.

Street Swags founder Jean Madden cleared of all wrongdoing relating to homeless charity

Jean Madden pictured nearby her home in Brisbane. Picture: Annette Dew.

Police on Thursday offered no evidence for several counts of fraud against Ms Madden in the Brisbane Magistrates Court, which they had previously claimed occurred in 2015-16.

The former Queensland Young Australian of the Year said the ordeal, where she was arrested several times and had charges dropped and reinstated, had “horrific consequences” on her life — including causing her to develop a fainting disorder, lose her teaching job, relationship and custody of her children after being forced to apply for Newstart.

“I couldn’t even get a job plucking chickens at Inghams. I couldn’t get a Blue Card and I had my teaching license revoked because of the charges,” the former Queensland Telstra Business Woman of the Year said.

“The trauma has been very difficult for my emotional mental health. I started fainting. Being faced with having nowhere to live, any kind of stress and I would literally faint. I was just that traumatised.

“I lost custody of my children … I had majority custody but because I was a criminal, I now see my kids only Thursday night and every second weekend because I didn’t have the money to fight it.”

Street Swags founder Jean Madden leaving the Brisbane Magistrates Court on Thursday after having all fraud charges against her dropped. Photographer: Liam Kidston.

Ms Madden maintains she did “nothing wrong” in her operation of Street Swags.

“I was accused of everything from hiring a hit man, hiding buildings that were last seen on the Brookfield Showgrounds, a hit and run, hiding one million dollars in my backyard, giving one million dollars to my secret lover. I mean the stuff I was accused of was just so fantastical,” she said.

Ms Madden is now taking action in the Fair Work Commission for wrongful dismissal after being sacked from Street Swags in 2016.

“The whole thing was just so fantastical because the expenses they were claiming that I had pocketed was more than the charity had made anyway, it was just so far from realistic,” she said.

Jean Madden at a gathering of homeless and people with housing emergencies in 2013.

“There are still people out there that believe these terrible stories and that impacts on my ability to have a life and create an income and while I was never worried that eventually I would be exonerated, I still had to go through the process of having my name cleared.”

Ms Madden is also seeking more than $50,000 in costs from police and the matter has been listed for hearing next year.

She said she has not ruled out working in the charity sector again and is hoping to teach in a primary school.

“Because my reputation is so ruined, it’s completely decimated my career in the not-for-profit sector and as a teacher, so now I have to find a school that would take me on,” Ms Madden said.

Jean Madden in 2012.

The mother-of-two said Street Swags staff had been her “biggest support” and the organisation had only ever been a “vehicle” for her charity work.

“If I was in a position to take that (charity) on again why would I take on a company that was not doing well? I’d just start again,” she said.

Street Swags 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.