Claudette Munday: Bega woman who undertook bushfire and Covid relief fraud will be released

A South Coast woman who used 59 false identities to claim dozens of false disaster relief payments will be temporarily released from prison following a court ruling.

A South Coast woman who used 59 false identities, including those of her sons and deceased grandmother, to claim dozens of disaster relief payments will be temporarily released from prison after less than a year behind bars.

Claudette Munday was sentenced to two years in prison in March after she was convicted of two charges each of obtain a financial advantage by deception and attempt to obtain financial advantage by deception.

The charges related to her applying for $59,000 in Black Summer bushfire government disaster relief payment as well as flood relief and financial assistance related to the Covid pandemic.

Appearing at the Bega District Court on June 9, Judge James Bennett approved Munday’s application to be released from prison to a 12-week drug and alcohol rehabilitation program at The Glen.

Upon completion of the program, Munday’s detention would be reassessed, but, that wouldn’t necessarily entail release, Judge Bennett said.

“It goes without saying these are serious crimes and they are difficult to detect,” Judge Bennett said.

“The government provided money to those in need, not to those who simply wanted it. There were reasons for the urgency in which these payments were granted. Checks that might otherwise have been taken were not necessarily undertaken.

“At the conclusion of her program at The Glen, or if there is some failure to comply with their routine before then, Munday can come back into custody so I can then decide exactly what to do with her.”

Judge Bennett said Munday had received multiple warnings before being charged and yet continued to make disaster relief claims amid the fallout of the devastating Black Summer bushfires that destroyed large swathes of land nearby to Eden where she was residing at the time.

“The bushfires might have stopped, but she then went after the flood relief funds. It wasn’t through any effort of her own that she was unsuccessful in gaining access to those funds,” Judge Bennett said.

“The press have published recently the number of false claims that have been made by people who have had the audacity to take advantage of the generosity of the people of NSW. So, there is a significant amount of weight attributed to these cases.”

Bega District Court

The court heard from Munday’s sister, Elle Munday, who told Judge Bennett the Bega woman was the victim of intergenerational trauma, was illiterate and was easily persuaded into unethical courses of action owing to trauma of past domestic violence.

Judge Bennett was unconvinced.

“There’s a measure of education in the commission of these offences,” he said.

“She might be illiterate – that is what she has said to people – but the perpetration of these crimes involved at least some measure of sophistication.

“She told police that just kept doing it and hoped that she would get away with it.”

Munday’s sister told the court Munday did not understand the seriousness of what she was doing and that she was talked into certain courses of the action by somebody else.

Who that “somebody” might be was a matter of debate for Judge Bennett.

“Whatever domestic violence Munday was in at the time, pushed her to do that,” Munday’s sister said.

“She’s very easily stood over. Whatever crowd or partner she’s got can talk her into doing stupid things.

“She was doing things on behalf of her kids, to try and provide for them.

“I know it’s wrong what she did, and she’s very ashamed.

“I think she has a problem saying no. Once she starts doing something, and she realises it is wrong, she can’t stop doing it.”

According to documents provided to the court, Munday had concluded a relationship before or shortly after she began making the disaster relief payments.

“She just pressed on doing it herself, using fictitious names and accounts,” the judge said.

“She left her partner of five years who had been violent to live with her mother and she died not a long time after that. But, that was early in the sequence of these claims. The question is, why did she continue to do it after the relationship was terminated?”

Munday’s sister responded: “She just got mixed up in the head. She didn’t know what she was doing.”

Judge Bennett ordered the Crown Director of Public Prosecutions’ representative, Ella Gordan, and Ms Munday’s solicitor, to determine a strict set of bail conditions for while she is at The Glen. She will be released on July 5.