Scammers: Mildura’s Catherine Leonia Dyason, Walton Bevan and Brylei Phillips

These are the faces of the Mildura conjobs and fraudsters who have ripped off your hard earned money by scamming the ATO.

More than $120,000 has been swindled from the Australian Taxation Office over the past 12 months by three Mildura fraudsters. It’s time to name and shame.

Catherine Leonia Dyason

Mildura’s Catherine Leonia Dyason plead guilty to ripping off the ATO to the tune of $34,209

Dyason is spending the next month in jail after raking in tens of thousands of dollars in ill-gotten gains after registering a fake business with the ATO.

The court was told Dyason registered a business under her name on February 9, 2022, with the main business activity listed as a hairdressing service. On the same day, she registered for the GST.

Dyason then lodged three claims with the ATO over the next few months, obtaining a total of $34,209 in fraudulent funds.

When Dyason was arrested in December this year after the ATO cottoned on to her offending she told police, “It was stupid”.

“She made admissions to police that she gave her details to someone else and then (they) set it up for her,” the police prosecutor told the court.

“She thought it might come back to bite her in the arse”

In his Magistrate Patrick Southey said he was setting an example, jailing her for a month with a further two months suspended.

Walton Bevan

Walton Bevan in handcuffs after he was found guilty of ATO fraud

The Mildura sole trader claimed $60,000 in false ATO claims after following tax advice from his brother-in-law who was fresh out of prison at the time.

The messages exchanged between Bevan and his brother-in-law read, “Bro, get Brylei to register for GST, and we’ll be able to pump 20k a month”.

Magistrate Michael Coghlan said in his sentencing that Bevan must have known what he was doing due to his background as a sole trader.

“This is not a situation where you’ve entered into this enterprise not knowing what you were doing,” Mr Coghlan said.

“You knowingly ripped money from the Australian community … The federal government relies on tax for resources for the very needy, unemployment payments, and pensions.”

Bevan was taken into custody in handcuffs to serve his two-month jail sentence.

In addition to the imprisonment, he was also fined $2000.

Brylei Phillips

Brylei Phillips copped her right whack for defrauding $38,000 from the ATO

The mum-of-three told the court that she “thought it was legit” to claim more than $38,000 from the ATO.

Phillips pleaded guilty to seven charges of obtaining financial advantage by deception in the Mildura Magistrates’ Court after swindling almost $39,000 in false GST claims between February and April last year.

The 28-year-old re-establish a cancelled Australian Business Number for a catering business she used to run in Alice Springs.

Despite Phillips claiming she thought it was all legal text messages between her and her brother revealed that she was well aware it wasn’t according to the police prosecutor.

“Communication between her and her brother indicated they knew it was illegal,” the prosecutor said.

In his judgment, Mr Coghlan considered Phillips’s repayment to the ATO and imposed a sentence of 250 hours of community work and a 12-month good behaviour bond.