Luke Daniel McLaughlin guilty of $59,000 timesheet fraud at BHP Goonyella Riverside mine

A Bowen Basin miner submitted $59,471 worth of timesheets for shifts rostered underground in just over six months. There was only one problem — he didn’t work them.

A Bowen Basin miner defrauded BHP to the sum of $59,471 when he submitted timesheets for shifts unworked, and the court heard why he did not turn up.

A Queensland miner “couldn’t explain” why he had submitted almost $60,000 worth of fake timesheets at a Bowen Basin mine in under six months, following a fateful arrest six years later.

Luke Daniel McLaughlin faced Mackay Magistrates Court for defrauding BHP while working at the company’s Goonyella Riverside Mine between January and August, 2018.

Aaron Sellentin from Barron & Allen Lawyers said McLaughlin’s mental health had been suffering amid drug use, despite his otherwise good work history with mines and mining contractors.

“He was suffering from depression anxiety (and said) he had no confidence or self worth and was broken down in a way that he couldn’t describe,” Mr Sellentin told the court.

“He’s stayed there at the accommodation but didn’t go down to the mine site to do the job he was employed to do (so) his employment was then terminated.

“He regrets what he did.

A sign for Goonyella Riverside Mine and Moranbah North Mine. Generic. Photo: Zizi Averill

“He was given every chance to turn his life around and can’t explain why he did it, it wasn’t how he wanted to start life with his new baby.”

The court heard the 42-year-old had welcomed a baby daughter months before the offending and his former partner, mother to that child, was in court to support him.

McLaughlin was later pulled over by police in Hay Point in January, 2024, found with methylamphetamine in his possession, and taken into custody on an outstanding warrant.

He pleaded guilty to fraud, uttering forged documents, drug driving, drug driving on a provisional licence, unsupervised while learning to drive, and failure to appear.

Police prosecutor Chris Hutchins suggested a three year jail sentence, but said given McLaughlin’s good work history “if there are genuine prospects of paying that money back, the sooner he be released”.

Magistrate Janelle Boegheim said though she could accept “suffered depression and anxiety that you could not bring yourself to go to work”, the court had not been presented with medical evidence of a mental health issue.

McLaughlin was given a head sentence of two years imprisonment for fraud, with three months concurrent for uttering forged documents, and released on parole after 74 days in pre-sentence custody.