Padstow granny sentenced for scamming Centrelink

The Padstow grandmother who ran a fraud syndicate and scammed Centrelink out of $137,000 has been sentenced to five years behind bars.

Rebecca Assie, who has been dubbed 'Australia's greediest granny', appears at Penrith Local Court accused of ripping off Centrelink hundreds of thousands of dollars and faking blindness. Picture: Toby Zerna

• Alleged leaders of Blue Mountains child sex ring distressed
• Werrington man charged with child grooming

The Padstow grandmother who scammed Centrelink out of $137,000 has been sentenced to five years behind bars.

Rebecca Assie, 62, appeared before Penrith Court today for sentencing after being charged with running a fraud syndicate helping people make false claims for carer payments and coaching them on how to get doctors and psychologists to fill out medical reports required by the welfare agency. Between 2013 and 2015 Assie and her late husband received a total of 137,435 in payments from false claims.

Officers from the Australian Federal Police raided Assie’s Padstow home in September 2013 and found, in a locked safe hidden in a bedroom floor, 25 bundles of $50 notes totalling $244, 950.

In 2017 it was also revealed that for 21 years Assie had pretended to be blind in order to receive disability payments, fraudulently receiving more than $200,000.

Assie was sentenced to five years in jail with a non-parole period of three years and three months. Picture: Toby Zerna

Court documents reveal the lengths Ms Assie and her husband Abu Ali went to organise the syndicate. Assie often used code words when organising cash payments, using the code grape when referring to money.

One example of this is in a conversation between Assie and one of her “students” recorded in the statement of facts.

Assie leaves Penrith Local Court escorted by family. Picture: Toby Zerna

Assie: “Why is she giving you five kilos of grapes and five kilos of grapes? Tell her if I didn’t have confidence in myself I wouldn’t have done it for her.”

Student: “Didn’t I tell you yesterday I gave you 500 and I would give you another 500 today? If it is not going to work I want my money back because I am not going to pay for nothing.”

The sentencing was adjourned last Friday, after the defence claimed Assie was possibly suffering from internal bleeding and required surgery.

When the matter resumed today, Judge Graham Turnbull determined that the matter would proceed to sentencing and stated there was insufficient evidence to warrant adjourning the sentencing again.

Assie was sentenced to five years in prison, with a non-parole period of three years and three months. She will not be eligible for release until December 2022.