Centrelink fraud: Nurse built a $3 million property empire while claiming allowances
EXCLUSIVE: A nurse who defrauded Centrelink of $70,000 while holding property worth more than $3 million was ordered by an appeals tribunal to repay the money.
AN Auburn nurse who defrauded Centrelink of almost $70,000 while holding a portfolio of property worth more than $3 million, has been ordered by an appeals tribunal to repay the money.
Marnya Idlabi, a mother of four, was told by Centrelink she had to repay $69,018.48 worth of Austudy, Newstart Allowance and Parenting Payments after it discovered she was “a member of a couple” but was paid a pension at the single rate.
It also found she had neglected to declare her ownership of properties at Auburn, Burwood and Bondi while receiving benefits.
Ms Idlabi, who drives a late model BMW sedan, took Centrelink’s decision to the Social Securities Appeals Tribunal, but the repayment demand was upheld.
When approached by The Daily Telegraph, Ms Idlabi said it had been a “mistake” and she and her partner Abdullah Hammoud were trying to move on with their lives.
“I have four children and I work fulltime,” Ms Idlabi said at her Auburn home yesterday.
Despite Ms Idlabi declaring she was a single parent and claims her relationship with Mr Hammoud was “hot and cold”, court documents revealed she had in been in a de facto relationship with him between February 2004 and February 2007 and February 2009 and December 2012.
The documents said Ms Idlabi met Mr Hammoud after his uncle was gunned-down in a murder in Granville in 2002; Ms Idlabi had been a witness to the slaying and she and Mr Hammoud had formed a friendship that blossomed into a romantic relationship.
Ms Idlabi said she had tried to make their relationship work for the sake of their four children.
The tribunal heard Ms Idlabi was the sole provider for her four children and supported Mr Hammoud, who was declared bankrupt in 2006 due to a “failed business venture and gambling problems”.
Her residence in Auburn was purchased for $481,000 in 2011, while she also had a Burwood property, purchased for $820,000 in 2011, and another property in Bondi, purchased for $1,750,000 in 2013.
Ms Idlabi, a nurse at an Auburn aged care facility, told the tribunal the Burwood and Bondi properties had been purchased in trust for her sister, Sarab Chami.
The tribunal heard a company called Oceanic Invest Pty Ltd was formed, with Ms Idlabi the sole director, to purchase the Bondi property. The shares of the company were only signed over to Ms Chami in June 2014 and Ms Chami then became the director. The Burwood property was also signed over to Ms Chami in June 2014.
Ms Idlabi was ordered to repay the debt in full.
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