Sunshine Coast fraudsters who have faced court in 2022
From a scammer caught up in a romance con of her own to a former employee at a ritzy Noosa eatery, these people were caught in some the Sunshine Coast’s fraud cases in 2022.
Police & Courts
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Sunshine Coast courtrooms have been littered with dishonest fraudsters and scammers throughout 2022, from dodgy employees to online scammers.
As we prepare to enter the new year, the Sunshine Coast Daily has taken a look back at some of the biggest fraud cases to hit Sunshine Coast courts this year.
From a scammer caught up in a romance scam of her own to a former employee at a ritzy Noosa eatery, these people have faced Sunshine Coast courts for charges of fraud:
Jodi Louise Nuske
Noosaville mother Jodi Louise Nuske was sentenced to seven years behind bars after she was found guilty of defrauding her former workplace, ritzy Noosa eatery Bistro C, out of more than $612,000.
During Nuske’s trial, which ran in the Maroochydore District Court for 10 days, the court was told she had worked as a bookkeeper and was in total control of the business’ finances.
She was originally alleged to have stolen more than $750,000, but this was downgraded during her sentencing.
The court was told Nuske had used the siphoned funds to pay personal expenses such as school fees and payments on a new Noosaville home, as well as tax payments.
Defence barrister Scott Casey said his client was a mother of two, who was thoroughly supported by her family throughout the three-week trial.
After leaving Bistro C, he said Nuske started working alongside her father in a women’s clothing business.
He said he agreed it was a “significant” amount of money taken, but Bistro C did not suffer financial hardship due to Nuske’s offending.
At the time of publishing, Nuske was yet to be given a parole eligibility date nor a parole release date.
Nuske has not appealed her sentence.
Karen Delores Swartz
Maroochydore Nurse Karen Delores Swartz narrowly missed jail time after she rorted Centrelink out of more than $100,000.
Swartz pleaded guilty in Maroochydore District Court to obtaining financial advantage by deception between January 23, 2014 and March 7, 2019 in Maroochydore.
The court was told Swartz had taken advantage of government assistance through Centrelink carer’s payments to the tune of $108,753.76 over five years after she failed to declare she had gained employment and that her income had changed.
This only came to light after the Australian Taxation Office detected her swindling through a data match on August 30, 2018, with the court being told only $4729.20 had been paid back.
Defence barrister Mark Dixon said Swartz had been a carer for her mother but buried “her head in the sand” by ignoring her offending due to her depression.
Swartz was sentenced to three years’ jail but was released immediately on a five-year good behaviour recognisance.
She was then ordered to pay back the remaining $104,024.56.
Convictions were recorded.
Swartz has not appealed her sentence.
Anita Margaret Humphreys (Breen)
Former principal of a Sunshine Coast rental property management company Anita Margaret Humphreys, also known as Anita Breen, was jailed for fraudulently obtaining $70,000, and admitting bogus receipts in a court case against a tenant.
She pleaded guilty in Maroochydore District Court to two counts of fraud and one count of attempting to pervert the course of justice.
The court was told Humphreys had previously sought compensation over a bond dispute with a tenant over alleged damage to a Little Mountain property.
Judge Amanda McDonnell said the 51-year-old tendered 34 forged invoices for repairs which were never completed, and was awarded $1809.90 in compensation from the tenant in the QCAT case.
But when the tenant was contacted by the new tenants to collect their mail, they became aware the repairs had not been done.
Judge McDonnell said Humphreys then lied to police when confronted, maintaining work had been carried out by eight local businesses, and denied producing forged documents.
Defence barrister Nathan Turner said his client’s frauds were misguided attempts to keep her business afloat.
Mr Turner said Humphreys was the manager of Airtasker business Ladies Running Errands and the founder of a charity called the Sunshine Coast Kindness Pandemic, which was still running.
He said she had been diagnosed with depression, anxiety and PTSD, and was a carer for her mother who had advanced dementia.
She was sentenced to three years’ jail, which is to be suspended after she serves nine months in custody.
Humphreys has not appealed her sentence.
Alyson Faye Nye
Sunshine Coast woman Alyson Faye Nye, 56, narrowly avoided jail time after she took more than $73,000 extra from her weekly Centrelink payments for seven years.
She had previously pleaded guilty to obtaining financial advantage by deception but was sentenced in Maroochydore District Court on August 24, 2022.
The court was told Nye had reported false income statements between March, 2013 and July, 2020. These included Newstart and Jobseeker payments as well as the pandemic payment and the 2020 economic support payment.
Judge Gary Long said the false declarations Faye submitted weekly for 192 weeks was to dishonestly obtaining the payments while also receiving an income.
The court heard through her employment with TriCare, where she worked at times casually and part-time in the kitchen, she had earnt $295,511.49.
But during the seven-year period she had only declared $103,911.01 of that income, and was then overpaid $73,061.21 by social services.
The court was told Nye was advised of the error in March 2018, but continued to under report her income until she was ultimately taken off the self reporting method in July, 2020 after failing to provide sufficient pay slips from her employer.
The court heard Nye – who had been seen by a psychologist – had a borderline personality with pervasive obsessive traits and was unlikely to have a satisfactory coping strategy in place to deal with important matters like income.
She was sentenced to two years in prison, but was immediately released and given a good behaviour bond for two years with a security of $2000.
She will be supervised for those two years and was ordered to repay the Commonwealth $73,061.21.
Nye has not appealed her sentence.
David Norman Bloomfield
Sunshine Coast man David Norman Bloomfield, 49, was jailed after he took $245,000 and spent it on his own “lavish lifestyle”, a court has heard.
He pleaded guilty in Maroochydore District Court to two counts of fraud on July 11, 2022.
The court heard Bloomfield lured two victims into false pretences after he claimed he was an investor and could give them incredible returns on their investment.
The victims, who knew Bloomfield after working with him previously, gave him $125,250 and $119,850 respectively.
This was spent on his lifestyle and living expenses, the court was told, which included hotel accommodation, Qantas tickets, go karting, clothing, utility bills, limousine transfers, and even a $35,000 deposit for a $1.5 million home.
One of the victims even gave Bloomfield $20,370 after he’d asked for the money to pay for the deposit of his 90ft yacht, which there was no evidence he ever did.
The court heard Bloomfield was “uncontactable” at times throughout the offending, and would give excuses ranging from his printer not working to his wife being in hospital.
He gave a tearful apology to his victims and said he had been confident he could have turned their money into a higher investment but things had “unravelled” when he was unable to contact his business partners.
He was given a five-year sentence, which will be suspended for five years after serving 20 months in jail.
Bloomfield has not appealed his sentence.
Brian James Pitt
Maroochydore man Brian James Pitt, 45, stole more than $1000 from a friend’s online bank account and lied about paying it back.
Pitt was convicted in Caloundra Magistrates Court on May 4 of four charges including two of stealing, one charge of fraud by dishonestly obtaining property from another and one charge of failing to take reasonable care and precautions in respect of syringe.
The court previously heard a woman known to Pitt told police three unauthorised transactions had been made on her account totalling $1050 in three separate amounts.
The deposits included $600 on July 20, $250 on July 21, and $200 on July 22 which were found to have been made to a Suncorp bank account under Pitt’s name after NAB investigated the matter.
The woman told police she had used his phone on a previous occasion to access her online banking service which saved her login details as she did not have internet access at the time
She said the two had been friends six months prior to his offending and later confronted Pitt about the incident who told her that he would repay the money.
Police Prosecutor Sergeant Stuart Lydford asked for Pitt to pay restitution of $1050 for the bank account fraud.
Pitt did not have legal representation and told the court he suffered from PTSD and had a job where he was paying $40 a week to cover a SPER debt for earlier offences.
Magistrate Raelene Ellis said Pitt had committed a string of dishonesty offences over the past nine to 10 months.
He was convicted for all four offences and fined $750 which would be added to his SPER debt which exceeded $5000.
He was ordered to pay $1050 in restitution for the bank account theft.
Pitt has not appealed his sentence.
Convictions not recorded
Charles Antony Meaclem
Sunshine Coast tradie Charles Antony Meaclem, 28, faced jail time after he defrauded his customers after promising to build them a fence.
He pleaded guilty in Maroochydore Magistrates Court on September 1 to fraud.
Police prosecutor Senior Constable David Hoffman said two Palmview neighbours had paid Meaclem $4450 in total to build them a fence in August, 2021.
He said Meaclem deceived the customers then deceived the two customers, who had paid $2225 each to him, through various email and text messages stating the job would be done.
Meaclem told the court he had nearly $3000 in savings which he intended to use to repay the money to the complainants.
Magistrate Haydn Stjernqvist fined Meaclem $500 and ordered him to repay the complainants within three months or face a possible 120 days in prison.
A conviction was not recorded.
Macleam has not appealed his sentence.
Kasey Alice Mooy
Former Baringa childcare worker Kasey Alice Mooy ran to police for help after she was threatened online for defrauding would-be car sellers out of thousands of dollars.
Mooy, who was 19 at the time, pleaded guilty to two counts of forging a document with intent to defraud, two of fraud and two of uttering a forged document.
Caloundra Magistrates Court was told she defrauded more than $22,000 through dodgy Facebook marketplace deals.
The court was told she had forged two bank transactions of $12,000 and $5100 to two people between September 22-24, 2021.
On her second transaction for a Holden Rodeo Mooy had given the seller $2000 in cash and said she had transferred the balance, according to police prosecutor Stu Lydford.
Mooy then onsold the car for $5500, the court was told.
But her scram unravelled when she told police she had received threatening messages from sellers demanding their cars back.
This was later reported to police on September 30 from the second seller.
Defence lawyer Chelsea Emery told the court Mooy had moved back to Sydney since being charged and denied it was a well-thought-out scheme.
The court was told Mooy had used her own name, met the sellers at her own home and was “trolled” on Facebook because of her deception. She even had her licence plastered on social media.
The court was told Mooy was in a financial bind at the time, but had returned the vehicles and refunded the money so the sellers were not out of pocket.
She was fined $2500.
A conviction was not recorded.
Mooy has not appealed her sentence.
Gillian Sarah Clayton
Coolum Beach aged care worker Gillian Sarah Clayton, 51, who defrauded 11 people out of more than $7000 during a grand piano scam, was forced to repay her victims after she faced court.
She pleaded guilty in Noosa Magistrates Court to 11 counts of fraud on August 23, 2022.
The court was told Clayton had participated in a Facebook scam where a piano was advertised for free online, where anyone interested would just have to pay for delivery.
Clayton would then use her personal bank account to take the money and pass it onto a third party.
The victims notified police after they never received the piano.
Clayton told police she was passing the funds to a retired overseas soldier, whom she was in a two-year relationship with but had never met.
Defence solicitor Anna Smith said the defendant was caught up in a romance scam and had also given her online partner about $40,000.
The solicitor said she was a lonely woman who thought she had found love.
Magistrate Haydn Stjernqvist ordered she pay $6670 restitution to the 10 victims who needed their money back.
A conviction was not recorded.
Clayton has not appealed her sentence.
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