Louise Lyel, Milton-Ulladulla: Woman ripped off real estate agencies, eBay customers and Centrelink
Once a high-flying media relations business woman, Louise Lyel later resorted to using fake identification to rent properties and owing real estate agencies and eBay buyers thousands in cash. Now she has been sentenced in court.
The South Coast News
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A South Coast woman has been ordered to pay back more than $12,000 after she ripped off Centrelink, real estate agencies and eBay customers.
Louise Lyel, who has also used the surname Convy in the past, has been sentenced to a two-year community corrections order.
The 54-year-old pleaded guilty to five counts of obtaining a financial advantage from a Commonwealth entity, one count of knowingly make false or misleading statement and six counts of dishonestly obtain financial advantage by deception.
In Nowra Local Court on Tuesday, Magistrate Gabriel Fleming found she could be dealt under both the Commonwealth and NSW mental health legislation.
Magistrate Fleming acknowledged Lyel’s doctor had submitted she had residual symptoms of depression, anxiety and PTSD, and that her treatment and abstinence from alcohol had seen her mood stabilise.
The court heard the life of the once successful media relations businesswoman began to turn in 2005, leading to a cascade of issues related to “homelessness, evictions and withdrawal from social events”.
Lyel, under her former surname Convy, formed a lobby group for start-up companies called Entrepreneurs Only in the early noughties, and has been a director many of her own media or public relations companies.
However, Magistrate Fleming ultimately found the matters of dishonesty which occurred from 2017 to 2019 should be dealt with under criminal law.
Lyel was found to have claimed $4816.80 in overpayments of rental assistance and Newstart. She used fictitious landlords, from fictitious addresses, to claim the money, federal prosecutor Alexander Von Treifeldt, said.
“It was deliberate, calculated dishonesty,” he said.
Lyel, who was known to frequent South Coast cafes with her cockatoo Ronnie, also pleaded guilty to using used fake identification to rent accommodation from a number of real estate agencies without paying more Ray White Real Estate Mollymook $4492.85 and LJ Hooker Ulladulla a total of $7200.
She also pleaded guilty to not delivering two iPhones she sold over eBay for $1045, another item for $470 to a separate victim and another item worth $455 to a different victim.
Magistrate Fleming acknowledged how Lyel’s difficult background and her combination of mental illness and alcoholism led to homelessness, relationship breakdowns, unemployment and an itinerant lifestyle.
But the court heard the nature of offences were “very serious” as she showed a degree of planning and her sentence assessment report stated Lyel was not yet “fully insightful” of the seriousness of the matters.
“When you take from the social welfare system you are taking from someone else in the community … if you’re not entitled to it you should not be paid it,” Magistrate Fleming said upon sentencing.
“It’s an offence against the entire community.
“There were a number of victims, people who thought they were getting something from eBay, it’s appalling.”
Magistrate Fleming sentenced Lyel to a two-year community corrections order where she must continue drug and alcohol counselling and treatment plan. She was also sentenced to 150 hours of community service for the Commonwealth matters.
She must also repay LJ Hooker Ulladulla $7200, Ray White Real Estate Mollymook $3600 and each of her eBay victims.
Lyel has repaid her complete debt to the Commonwealth.