Melissa Higgins: Albury childcare fraudster says jurors called her ‘bogan’
Racist remarks, coercion, and jokes from jurors behind the scenes that she was “a bogan” are some of the claims a woman convicted of stealing $3.6 million from the government says warrant a retrial.
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She was convicted of defrauding the Commonwealth of more than $3.6 million to fund a lavish lifestyle, but now Melissa Jade Higgins wants a retrial after an investigation found the jurors who sent her to jail joked she was “a bogan” behind her back.
The claims come as the former Albury childcare owner appeals her convictions, which sent her to prison for four years in 2017.
Her barrister David Dalton SC told the Supreme Court of Appeal on Friday that jurors at her trial were coerced into their verdicts, made racially offensive remarks and called her “a bogan” while deciding her fate.
Central to Higgins’ claims are a lengthy investigation by the NSW Sheriffs which found one juror said Higgins was “100 per cent guilty” and the court should “lock her up and throw away the key” in the deliberation room, her appeal hearing was told.
Higgins is appealing her convictions on the grounds that jurors found her guilty because of the coercion, concerns within the group of the trial going longer than expected and claims that some were actively biased against her.
The court was told one juror had come forward to reveal he was compromised on six of the 81 counts he believed Higgins should have been found not guilty on.
Presiding trial Judge at the time, Donna Woodburne, was sent an email from a juror after the verdicts detailing how some in the jury who objected to guilty verdicts “decided to go along with the majority”.
The Crown prosecution believes the claims do not amount to coercion or bias as “this is what happens when one gets 12 members of the community together, invariably they are going to be from different walks of life”, Friday’s hearing was told.
Higgins was convicted after making a series of false claims to access federal government funds under her company Aussie Giggles, which came to light when she went on to spend $740,000 on a house, $87,000 on a car and $30,000 on a swimming pool.
At trial, Judge Woodburne said she was "motivated by greed" in rorting the government benefits designed to help vulnerable children.
The three Supreme Court Justices hearing her case are expected to hand down a decision later this year.
The now 33-year-old is eligible for parole in May 2021.
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