Renee Plummer: Centrelink fraud who stole $28k from people across Australia has been sentenced to home detention

It was an astonishingly elaborate two-year enterprise that involved opening 22 bank accounts and assuming the personal details of her 35 victims ... all for a $28,000 Centrelink windfall.

Renee Plummer, who defrauded Centrelink out of $28,000, leaves Campbelltown Court after being sentences to 13 months home detention.

A Minto woman who defrauded dozens of Australians out of their welfare payments for two years has been sentenced to a community corrections order and home detention for 13 months.

Renee Plummer, 40, had a well-established system of hacking Centrelink accounts and changing the bank details to her own, cheating 35 Aussies out of $28,137 worth of payments.

For each of the 35 victims, Plummer managed to gain unauthorised access to their Centrelink account, change the bank details to an account she had opened and receive their welfare payment.

According to court documents, Plummer targeted people from separate areas of every Australian state.

When she came to the attention of fraud investigators, a search of her Minto home found notebooks filled with victim’s details such as their name, date of birth, Centrelink Customer Reference Number (CRN), address and children’s names.

Renee Plummer, 40, had a well-established system of hacking Centrelink accounts and changing the bank details to her own, cheating 35 Aussies out of $28,137 worth of payments.

Notebooks were also found with the amounts or dates of online hacks, or when Centrelink payments were due, according to court documents.

Police also found electronic copies of her victim’s income statements, tax documents, bank cards and Medicare cards.

Plummer set up 22 different bank accounts through Westpac, Commonwealth Bank and Defence Bank to transfer the fraudulent payments into, only one of which was legitimately opened in her name.

Court documents state the 21 remaining accounts were opened falsely, using the real-life names and identities of other people.

Investigators found mail, pay slips, energy bills and driver’s licence details relating to the eight people whose identities were used to operate the false bank accounts.

For the 21 accounts, Plummer used different combinations of seven mobile phone numbers and email addresses.

In total, there were 58 payments stolen from the 35 people over almost 18 months from November 14, 2016, to May 1, 2018.

Plummer stole varied amounts of money from $211 in one-off payments to one woman who lost six payments totalling $3409 over several months.

Renee Plummer (pictured centre) leaving Campbelltown Court on Monday

Another victim had $2113 worth of payments transferred into one of the 40-year-old’s fake bank accounts, according to court documents.

Plummer was charged with 35 counts of obtaining financial advantage by deception and pleaded guilty to all counts in October.

Victim Jaymee Quinn, who had a single payment stolen back in 2017, 1321km away in Adelaide told the Macarthur Chronicle waking up without her payment one day ‘stressed her out’.

“Honestly I don‘t know how she did it. I was waiting for my money to arrive into my account on a Wednesday morning,” she said.

“I then logged into Centrelink again and checked the details of account and sure enough it wasn’t my account … It stressed me out.”

During sentencing at Campbelltown Court on Monday, Magistrate Ian Guy said the level of “sophistication” in Plummer’s offending was “significant”.

“The number of bank accounts you targeted was large,” Magistrate Guy told Plummer.

“The planning and sheer number of entities that was created held a particular seriousness.”

Magistrate Guy said the community and government both expect welfare recipients to receive the money they are entitled to.

“Ms Plummer abused the right available to legitimate people in a significant fashion,” he said.

Plummer was sentenced to an 18-month intensive corrections order and home detention for 13 months including electronic monitoring.