Clarinda ‘spiritual coach’ Jenny Yu avoids jail stint after pleading guilty to $145,000 Medicare rort
A Clarinda ‘spiritual coach’ needs some healing energy after she rorted Medicare while working at a Burwood medical centre.
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A self-proclaimed spiritual coach who conjured up a $145,000 Medicare rort while working at a Burwood medical centre has avoided an immediate jail term.
Jenny Yu, 43, was sentenced in the County Court on Wednesday to a two-year suspended jail term after pleading guilty to multiple obtain financial advantage by deception charges.
Yu fleeced $144,812 via 265 bogus Medicare claims while Transformational Medicine Australia practice manager between August 2016 and July 2018.
The court heard Yu funnelled the dough to four bank accounts after diddling a point of sale Medicare benefit rebate system.
Yu used her position to lodge false claims for non-existent medical services on behalf of herself, her mother, her father and her ex-husband, the court was told.
Yu, from Clarinda, also attempted to rort another $788 before her racket was kiboshed by Department of Human Services authorities.
The prosecution submitted Yu committed an “ongoing and sustained systematic defrauding of the Commonwealth”.
Authorities conducting the investigation invited Yu in for an interview which she voluntarily attended on October 16, 2018.
Yu copped to her racket and confirmed the money was funnelled to multiple bank accounts including accounts controlled by her parents.
Yu, who admitted accessing her family’s Medicare accounts, handed over a cheque to authorities for the full amount stolen.
Yu claimed she sold two investment properties to repay the stolen dough.
The court was told Yu commenced working for Transformational Medicine in May 2018, barely a month before her offending commenced.
The manager/secretary’s duties including managing the reception area and billing patients.
Yu and her mother were also patients of the clinic’s doc Dr. Margaret Jiin Ngu but her father and ex-husband never were.
Dr Ngu provided a witness statement to authorities, the court was told.
Judge Richard Maidment said the offending “undermined” the Medicare system and warned Yu anymore breaches could land her in the slammer.
Yu coughed up a $3000 surety and must be of good behaviour for three years.
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