Greedy mum Gayle Maher fronts court over insurance fraud

A Mordialloc mum’s brazen dishonesty saw her falsify her son’s death certificate in order to fraudulently obtain his life insurance payout.

Gayle Maher outside the County Court after been sentenced to two years community corrections order for attempting to fraudulently cash in on her son's insurance policy.

A dishonest mother who attempted to fraudulently obtain the life insurance payout of her son by falsifying his death certificate has escaped jail.

Gayle Maher, an office manager from Mordialloc, was sentenced in the County Court on Tuesday to a two-year community corrections order after admitting to a charge of obtaining property by deception.

It was her second conviction for similar offending and Judge Frank Gucciardo warned her that she could be sent to prison if she appeared in court on dishonesty charges in future.

Around mid-2022, the 50-year-old falsified the death certificate of her son Dillon Maher who had a life insurance cover worth $75,000 with MTAA Super Fund which became Spirit Super.

After the cover lapsed prior to his death in July 2021, she joined him with Spirit Super as a member by his purported super contribution of $6535.

Gayle Maher falsified her son's death certificate details in order to obtain his life insurance.

Maher made two super payments purported to be for his employment at Dandenong-based Bayside Diesel Services.

The payments covered the period between March and December 2020 and between January and June 2021.

The second payment of $5987 was under a business identified as Bayside Diesel Services based in Dandenong.

Investigations revealed the payments were made from her own Bankwest account.

At the end of May 2022, Maher contacted Spirit Super and falsely advised that her son had his superannuation with the company, that he had passed away in April 2022, and that she was the sole beneficiary.

Metlife Insurance Limited, group life insurer of Spirit Super, provided an automatic death insurance cover to her son of $194,400.

An investigation found out Maher had altered details of her son’s death certificate. She did not receive any funds.

She admitted creating a Spirit Super account in his name for the purposes of transferring money from a GoFundMe page that was created shortly after his death.

Maher told officers at Moorabbin police station she was “out of her mind” when she contacted

Spirit Super and altered the date on her son’s death certificate.

The County Court has given Gayle Maher two chances at redemption after multiple convictions for dishonesty.

“This was brazen dishonesty, flawed as may have been. Your conduct fundamentally undermines the economic relationship of trust and honesty which are the foundation of commercial and financial arrangements in our society,” Judge Gucciardo said.

In August 2014, Judge Gucciardo sentenced her to a two-year suspended sentence on two charges of theft and another of fraudulently obtaining property by deception.

The charges related to thefts of more than $100,000 from a real estate company she worked for at the time.

Judge Gucciardo said Maher was fortunate to escape jail in 2014 when he was persuaded to impose a non custodial sentence as the chances of her reoffending were low and prospects for rehabilitation high.