Fraud cops chasing down bikies claiming Covid grants

Organised crime gangs ­received payments from a multimillion-dollar NSW government grant scheme that was designed to support business and the community through the pandemic.

Organised crime gangs ­received payments from a multimillion-dollar NSW government grant scheme that was designed to support business and the community through the pandemic.

Police are investigating thousands of fraudulent claims, with bikie groups understood to be among the gangs and crime syndicates being scrutinised.

The grants were issued by the former government as part of a Covid microbusiness grant scheme designed to help support small businesses during the 2021 Delta outbreak.

But such was the speed at which the grants were issued that authorities believe almost half a billion — or $418 million worth of payments — may be non-compliant.

More than 10,000 of the claims have been referred to police, with a strike force set up in November 2021 to investigate fraud concerns within the program.

The grants were designed to help small businesses impacted by Covid.

Police are now cracking down on fraudulent claims, which they say include those from criminal organisations and bikie gangs.

So far it has uncovered 149 instances of organised crime or syndicate activity, with 15 or more linked applications.

Strike Force Sainsbery has laid 342 charges against 54 individuals while other police investigations into fraud has led to another 301 charges against 171 individuals.

So far 53 people have been convicted.

Fraudulent applications are believed to have cost the government at least $400 million dollars. Picture: NSW Police

It is understood Strike Force Sainsbery has prioritised cases associated with organised crime or syndicate activity.

The revelation comes ahead of Treasurer Daniel Mookhey delivering an economic statement to parliament next week, which will include detailing a $7 billion funding black hole the Minns government has been left to plug.

The NSW government has already listed a raft of programs the previous government failed to fund beyond this financial year, with rorts and fraud adding to a liability that will almost certainly mean spending cuts.

Established in July 2021, the Covid-19 microbusiness grant was to provide support to businesses with an annual turnover between $30,000 and $75,000, with successful applicants benefiting from fortnightly payments of $1500.

More than 82,000 applications were received for the program, with about 63,000 approved for grants totalling $781 million.

About 50,000 applications for grants totalling $640 million were processed automatically after a payment backlog.

However, many small businesses were unable to provide Business Activity Statements (BAS) or did not have business bank accounts.

Within two weeks of the program opening, the government was facing a backlog of more than 20,000 applicants, which would have taken a year to process.

To clear it, the government shifted to an automatic assessment.

While some of the non-compliant grants applications were wrongly paid out due to applicants making a genuine mistake, others were to made fraudsters rorting the system.

Service NSW has managed to stop almost 7,000 applications before they went to payment with another 2,461 applications suspected of fraud under investigation.

More than 20,700 applications have been flagged for investigation by Service NSW Fraud with 10,905 referred to NSW Police.

It is understood Service NSW is undertaking a review of its compliance and debt recovery processes.
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