Letisha Karam caught pocketing $446k in demerit point scam

A Melbourne woman earned more than $446,000 by offering to take demerit points for bad drivers before ultimately sending in innocent motorists’ licences to Fines Victoria.

Letisha Karam solicited money from offending drivers in Victoria in exchange for nominating others on their traffic infringement notices. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Crosling

A Melbourne woman earned more than $446,000 by offering to take demerit points for bad drivers before ultimately sending in innocent motorists’ licences to Fines Victoria.

Letisha Karam spent five years charging dodgy drivers the cost of their fine, plus $100 per month of driving suspension and $50 per demerit point lost, the County Court heard on Thursday.

Judge Kellie Blair said offending drivers avoided financial penalty, demerit points and in some instances suspension of their driver’s licence by paying the 29-year-old for her dishonesty between April 2018 and June 2023.

An analysis of Karam’s bank records revealed she pocketed $446,275 through a scheme she learnt after losing her own demerit points, ultimately submitting 1332 false nominations — averaging about 22 each month.

As part of an investigation by the Victoria Police financial crime squad, a covert operative contacted Karam via WhatsApp in June 2023 for help in getting out of a traffic infringement notice.

One driver who was fraudulently nominated by Letisha Karam had to attend court to clear his name. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Crosling

She replied: “Hey, no issues, happy to help out. Just need a photo of the fine and your licence. So it’s the fine cost plus $50 a point.”

In one case, Karam offered to be the bad driver, before actually nominating a motorist who was in custody at the time of the offending.

In another, she submitted the dodgy driver was a woman who’d lost her physical licence when her car was stolen.

A third person caught up in her fraud had to attend court to clear his name.

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The court heard Fines Victoria lost $406,221 in revenue as a result of Karam’s scam — money which would have otherwise gone to the Better Roads Victoria Trust which is then spent on road projects and safety initiatives.

The scam was discovered after a police officer investigating an unrelated matter in February 2021 realised a driver Karam had fraudulently nominated had received an extremely high number of driving fines.

In fact, police found, Karam was using just four people’s licences and dobbing them in for impossible instances of dodgy driving such as running red lights within 10 minutes of one another on opposite sides of Melbourne.

During an interview at Boroondara police station on June 9, 2023 Karam said she had this “stupid idea” of making easy money and offended without thinking.

She said people would drop off or mail her their fine notices and that it was more word-of-mouth offending.

“This is the dumbest thing ever, but she was struggling for cash. She knew this day would come. It just never processed in her head because of everything going on,” court documents stated.

Karam said she was doing it “a bit tough” after having to close her salon during the Covid lockdown and that she barely had any money for the six months preceding her arrest.

“So she thought in her head, it’s stupid, but it’s not going to hurt anyone and she is struggling. It was just a dumb, stupid decision.

“It just became this thing that spiralled out of control. Every time she would say she was not going to do it anymore, but then she would not be able to afford to pay rent or something, and this would help a little bit.

“It evolved from 2018. It was just a whirlwind. People would drop off the (fine notices) and then she went to WhatsApp because it was easier.”

Judge Blair said Karam’s offending could only be categorised as a serious example of the offence of obtaining property by deception.

“This is so in light of the consistent and repeated nature that you perpetrated fraudulent transactions,” Judge Blair said as she sent her to jail for a minimum of 13 months.

“Although unsophisticated, it was very effective and went undetected for five years. Your offending resulted in not only a substantial financial loss to the public revenue but also strikes at the heart of the administration of fines and regulations and of road safety in this state.”

The infringement fines transferred to the drivers Karam fraudulently nominated will be

deregistered.

“Because of the passage of time and other potential difficulties, the fines are not proposed to be transferred back to the registered owners of the vehicles,” the prosecution confirmed.

“Nor will those drivers face the consequences of accruing the

relevant demerit points.”

Karam’s total sentence was two years and two months’ imprisonment.