Sydney pole dance instructor avoids jail over $100k welfare rort

Melanie Bond repeatedly failed to tell Centrelink she was earning money on the side running her conveyancing and pole dancing businesses. It was only a matter of time before the department caught up with her.

A Sydney pole dancing instructor who defrauded Centrelink off almost $100,000 after failing to properly declare income from her two side businesses has narrowly avoided time behind bars.

Single mum Melanie Bond, 46, broke down in tears in Parramatta Local Court on Friday after Magistrate Peter Feather spared her a full-time jail sentence, despite finding her dishonesty had caused “a significant loss to Commonwealth coffers”.

Documents tendered to the court reveal Bond, a single mum of three from Luddenham in southwest Sydney, began receiving a carer’s payment from Services Australia in November 2011 while studying for her law degree.

However, she later abandoned that career and instead opened her own conveyancing firm in January 2013 and a pole dancing studio in January 2017 - the latter of which she owned alongside two other women.

The court heard Bond initially sought advice from Services Australia about her legal obligations when it came to declaring additional income and was told she would have to submit quarterly profit and loss forms.

However, court documents said Bond’s reporting was haphazard and at times she failed to submit the forms altogether.

At one stage she told Services Australia her conveyancing firm had earned a mere $158 in three months.

The court heard Bond, a qualified gym instructor and personal trainer, had opened a pole dancing studio with two friends in January 2017, but failed to notify Services Australia of the change in her circumstances or any income she was receiving as one of three company directors.

When Bond eventually did hand over her personal tax returns at the behest of Services Australia, the documents revealed she had earned an average of $60,000 a year between 2013 and 2017, none of which she had declared.

Melanie Bond, pictured, is a qualified pole dancing instructor

However, Bond’s free ride came to an end in May 2018, when Services Australia received an anonymous tip-off, prompting the department to launch a formal investigation.

The court heard Bond’s financial figures for the 2017/2018 financial year indicated she was on track to make $55,000, tipping her over the cut off limit for a carer’s payment.

An investigation revealed Bond had received $96,046 in carer payments between June 2014 and July 2018, however when her income from work was taken into account, she should only have been paid $775.

Bond was charged with one count of dishonestly causing a risk of loss to the Commonwealth, to which she pleaded guilty.

In court on Friday, Bond’s lawyer said his client had lost her conveyancing licence as a result of the charge and had been forced to close the business.

He said Bond had begun retraining as a nurse, and was currently working part time as a pole dance instructor, and hoped to secure employment as a swim instructor and a lifeguard in the near future.

He said she still received a carer’s payment, but money was being deducted from the balance each week to pay back what she owed the government.

In sparing Bond jail time, Magistrate Feather noted friends and family spoke “very highly” of her in a series of references tendered to the court, saying she was a “passionate, generous” person and the offence was “out of character”.

He also found she had a low risk of reoffending.

Bond was handed a 12-month suspended jail sentence and ordered to repay the defrauded amount in full.