Ilze Stephens pleads guilty to making false statements in Travis Stephens’ ADF fraud
A veteran nurse has failed to recognise the ‘gravity’ of falsely signing documents in her son’s shady rental scheme to defraud the defence force of nearly $100,000.
Canberra Star
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A Victorian grandmother has been told she played a subordinate role in her son’s dodgy scheme to defraud the Australian Defence Force of nearly $100,000.
Ilze Stephens made seven false statements between August 25, 2011 and April 20, 2018 in her collusion with her son Travis David Morgan Stephens for him to receive rental relief payments while he was employed as a soldier in the Australian Army.
Agreed facts tendered to the ACT Supreme Court on Monday state the veteran nurse declared her son was a tenant who paid her weekly rent for a Kingston apartment.
These statements were submitted as part of a rent subsidy her son could claim from the ADF, however an investigation later revealed Stephens’ son actually co-owned the property with her.
Court documents revealed the son would go onto to defraud the ADF of $91,705.54.
Court documents say the 71-year-old and her son both signed off on an owner/member statement in his application for rent allowance. In this form she agreed her son was paying $700 a week in rent and paid a bond of $2800 on August 26, 2011.
The facts state her son electronically completed annual rental allowance reviews falsely stating he did not own property and was renting it from his mum. Stephens would go onto complete and sign several of these statements.
The deceit went even further with comments made on the forms suggesting she was carrying out inspections and monitoring Canberra’s rental market.
Her son was sentenced in December to 16 months’ jail to be suspended after four months after he pleaded guilty to obtaining a financial advantage by deception and intending to dishonestly to cause a loss to a Commonwealth entity.
Defence barrister Jason Moffett said his client was of excellent character and an impressive member of the community, who did not benefit from the fruits of the criminal conduct.
The court heard the Townsville-born woman raised her two children solo after her husband died in a car accident in 1997. She later joined the Royal Australian Air Force as a nurse in 1974.
Stephens later became a night co-ordinator nurse at a Victorian hospital, a role she has held for the past 36 years.
Justice David Mossop said the entire scheme was unsophisticated with the Croydon Hills woman playing a subordinate role.
The Supreme Court Judge said it was clear she failed to recognise the “gravity” of the documents she was signing.
The Croydon Hills woman pleaded guilty to four counts of knowingly making a false or misleading statement and was sentenced to a recognisance release order to be of good behaviour of 12 months and fined $2000. Convictions were recorded.
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