Anthony Okeke: Alleged Ipswich fraudster facing 117 charges
An Ipswich IT director is facing 117 charges, including fraud of greater than $30K and creating dozens of fake identities to sign over more than 400 traffic offences.
Police & Courts
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An Ipswich IT company director created dozens of false identities to sign over more than 400 traffic infringement notices worth nearly $200,000, a court has heard.
Springfield Lakes man Anthony Onyeka Okeke, the Nigerian-Australian owner-director of the now-closed Compu-Service-X Pty Ltd, is facing 117 charges relating to dishonesty, fraud and theft-type offences.
They include, most seriously, one count of fraud to the value of between $30,000 – $100,000 and two counts of attempted fraud, currently before the Ipswich District Court.
The Queensland Times understands these charges related to frauds allegedly perpetrated against insurance companies.
They are alleged to have occurred between January 11, 2017 – February 20, 2019 at Springfield Lakes and Ipswich.
Mr Okeke, who has been remanded in pre-sentence custody since his arrest on February 22, 2019, a total of two years and six months, made a bail application in the District Court on Thursday.
During the bail hearing, the court heard details of Mr Okeke’s further alleged offending.
Over a two-year period, between January 2017 and his arrest in February 2019, Mr Okeke, aged 34, is alleged to have created fraudulent identities for Nigerian nationals to sign over an astounding 436 traffic infringement notices totalling $199,000.
In addition to this, Mr Okeke is alleged to have stolen from his employer a number of items including computers.
Crown prosecutor Hamish McIntyre told the court Mr Okeke is alleged to have “created emails in various people’s names” to perpetrate the dozens of forgeries and frauds.
“There’s strong evidence of him creating fraudulent identities,” Mr McIntyre said.
In opposing Mr Okeke’s bail – this was his fourth application before the higher courts, with three previous Supreme Court bail applications knocked back – Mr McIntyre said there was an unacceptable risk of Mr Okeke fleeing Australia.
Complicating matters, however, is that fact that all parties – Mr McIntyre, defence counsel Scott Neaves and Judge Dennis Lynch QC – agreed that, even taking the allegations at the highest, Mr Okeke would not receive a sentence which would require him to spend more time than he already has in custody.
However, Judge Lynch said the duration and intensity of the alleged offending meant he could draw no other conclusion than that Mr Okeke was an unacceptable risk of reoffending should he be released.
Mr Okeke intends on pleading not guilty to the three most serious fraud offences, the court heard.
They were to go before a jury this week, but due to circumstances out of both parties’ control it could not go ahead.
The trial will be relisted for the court’s first sitting week of the new year, in late January.
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