James Davies fronts County Court after pleading guilty to defrauding NDIS
An NDIS planner — who himself receives disability support — helped siphon $700,000 through fake disability claims and joked about “embezzling” the money to live overseas “like a king”.
A former NDIS planner who helped siphon $700,000 in fake disability claims joked about “embezzling” the money to live overseas “like a king”.
James Richard Barton Davies, 35, fronted the County Court via video link from Perth on Monday, where he pleaded guilty to one charge of engaging in conduct with the intention of dishonestly causing a loss to the Commonwealth entity.
Between April 2020 and May 2020, Davies defrauded the National Disability Insurance Agency by inflating funding for two NDIS participants by falsifying NDIS plans through their company, Global Care Network and causing a total loss of $700,000.
Mr Davies’ co-accused Mhaziar Bahraini is in Iran, with a warrant issued against him.
At the time of the offending, Davies was working as an NDIS planner at the NDIA.
Davies began working at Midlands NDIA in WA in January 2018, and then commenced a role in June of that year at the Moonee Ponds NDIA office in Melbourne.
Davies resigned from his position at NDIA in 2021 after becoming aware that he was under investigation for the offending.
In early 2019, Mr Bahreini allegedly registered Global Care Network (GCN) as an NDIS provider.
He would allegedly find details of participants whose funding was managed by Davies.
Davies would then falsely amend the participant’s primary disability to a spinal injury to increase their funding, approve a new plan, and pass the details to his co-accused.
Mr Bahreini would then allegedly approach the participant to offer support services and ask them to submit a quote to the NDIA for review.
Davies then created and approved a further new NDIS plan for that participant to again increase the funds available under the plan, based on the quote.
Mr Bahreini would then, through GCN, allegedly lodge a payment request against the new NDIS plan, claiming money from the NDIA for services that were never provided.
The court also heard there were WhatsApp messages exchanged between the duo before GNC was established, which included Davies saying, “imagine if we could embezzle the funding, and I could live in Bali or Iran”, to which Mr Bahreini replied, “that would be the most interesting outcome, living like a king”.
Davies then told him that the “way to do that (embezzle)” would be through Global Care Network (GCN) because they can “hopefully claim from the NDIS portal, receive the money”.
The court heard Davies, who himself is an NDIS participant, suffered from multiple health conditions, including cerebral palsy and scoliosis of the spine, requiring 24/7 support.
The co-accused, Mr Bahreini, was Davies’s support worker whom Davies met while studying commerce at Curtin University in 2010.
On Monday, a victim impact statement was read to the court, in which the victim recounted how the crime had an “emotional, psychological and physical” impact on her.
“The offence caused me severe emotional trauma. I suffered from nightmares, sleep disturbances, loss of appetite and constant anxiety,” it read.
“ … I feel I could not trust people, especially those who were meant to care for me.”
Davies’ lawyer told the court that $400,000 of the $700,000 had been repaid to GNC’s bank account, and that there was no evidence that her client ever received the payments.
She said her client was in a “conflicting dependent relationship” with Mr Bahreini, his support worker, and did not want to defraud the NDIA from the outset of GNC’s creation.
“It is submitted that there was a level of pressure that was exerted upon Mr Davies,” she said.
Davies’ lawyer accepted that it was “serious offending” and that a term of imprisonment was within the range.
The lawyer said her client had no prior criminal record and that $300,000 is no longer being pursued for repayment.
Judge Kevin Doyle adjourned the matter for further plea early next year.
