Amy Sarkis: Fairfield woman sentenced for role in NSW Government Covid grant scam

A woman who unlawfully received over $10,000 from the NSW Government after a criminal syndicate posed as a struggling business and made dodgy Covid grant applications has been sentenced.

Amy Sarkis appeared at Bankstown Local Court.

A woman who unlawfully received over $10,000 from the NSW Government after a criminal syndicate posed as a struggling business and made dodgy Covid grant applications has been sentenced.

Amy Sarkis, 25, of Fairfield, appeared before Bankstown Court on Thursday with a male supporter and was convicted of recklessly dealing with proceeds of crime.

The court heard $10,500 was deposited into her bank account from a Service NSW micro-business support payment between September and October 2021.

Sarkis was charged following an investigation by Strike force Sainsbery, which was established in November 2021 to investigate numerous suspected fraudulent grant applications made to Service NSW.

Amy Sarkis appeared at Bankstown Local Court.

Documents tendered to court state the criminal syndicate submitted 40 applications to Service NSW for microbusiness Covid-19 support grants under another name and used Australian Business Numbers (ABNs) the unknown person was not involved with.

From the 40 applications, one application was listed in Sarkis’s bank account.

“A micro business support payment was submittedand this application was later approved and $10,500 was deposited into the bank account held by Sarkis on October 31 2021,” the facts state.

Facts state Sarkis also supplied her identity details to receive one grant payment and the criminal syndicate used her information to submit 27 applications in her name.

Amy Sarkis appeared at Bankstown Local Court.

“Police allege this was done without the defendant’s knowledge and she did not receive any financial gain from the 27 applications made,” the facts state.

Magistrate Glenn Walsh said Sarkis’s offence “embezzled money from taxpayers”.’

“It strikes at the very heart of the help the government had tried to give citizens,” Mr Walsh said.

While Sarkis’ lawyer Mustafa Agar asked the court for a community corrections order, Sarkis was sentenced to a 15 month intensive correction order.

She was also convicted and ordered to pay $10,500 in compensation to Revenue Service NSW.