Bundoora’s Sarah Carpenter pleads guilty to years of fraud

A woman who stole the identities of 30 people, including an elderly “cash cow”, swindled more than $430,000 worth of cash, credit cards and shares to spend on flights, fast food and online gambling. But here’s how her scamming finally came undone.

A Bundoora woman stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from an elderly woman using stolen identities.

A prolific fraudster was on bail and under a community corrections order when she swindled more than $117,000 from an elderly woman and used 30 people’s identities to steal more than $430,000 worth of cash, credit cards and shares.

Sarah Carpenter, of Bundoora, is already behind bars after she was jailed more than a year ago for theft and fraud-related offences spanning four years.

MORE NEWS:

DAREBIN CRIME: THEFT FROM CARS IN NORTHCOTE, PRESTON

BRIDGETT JONES JAILED FOR A FURTHER 12 MONTHS FOR FRAUD

ATM SCAM: MIHAI CAMARA JAILED FOR CARD SKIMMING OPERATION

On Monday, the 40-year-old pleaded guilty in the County Court to seven charges of obtaining advantage by deception, six charges of attempting to obtain a financial advantage by deception, four charge of making a false document, one charge of possession of identification information and three charges of theft.

Each charge carries a maximum of between three months and ten years in prison.

Court documents show Carpenter fleeced $171,874.14 worth of cash and credit cards, and $264,429.71 worth of shares into multiple bank accounts using stolen identities between 2014 and 2018.

Between 2014 and 2016, Carpenter successfully applied for five credit cards; two under her own name and three under stolen identities, including that of an 83-year-old woman whose bank statements, driver’s licence, and pay slip were later found at Carpenter’s house.

An elderly Kew woman began to notice bank correspondence was not arriving at her home.

She used the credit cards at department stores, Flight Centre, Qantas, fast-food outlets, supermarkets, phone companies, and at Melbourne airport, the documents showed.

In 2016, Carpenter stole $117,474 from the bank accounts of a 73-year-old Kew woman.

Cheque books, bank statements, credit and debit cards, shareholdings summaries, and a Medicare card belonging to the Kew woman were later found at Carpenter’s home.

She transferred the cash into at least eight fake Indue bank accounts using stolen email addresses, dates of birth, home addresses and mobile numbers.

Police found multiple documents and IDs belonging to 30 people in Carpenter’s car and home.

The Indue accounts were used at the Hilton Melbourne and for online gambling.

Carpenter also emailed Indue’s fraud team pretending to be an account holder who could not access their funds and demanded compensation.

She claimed she could not call them because of a disability.

In March 2017, police pulled over Carpenter and searched her home and car where they found stolen identification material belonging to 30 people.

The material included 15 bank statements, four cheque books, 10 credit cards, 15 driver's licences, one fishing licence, two Medicare cards, one health insurance card, one Working With Children Check card, concert tickets, mail, and shareholdings documents.

A number of notes were also found at her house detailing bank accounts and fake phone numbers.

She was bailed but by August 2017, had created a fake stockbroking account under the Kew woman’s name and sold more than 10,500 of her ANZ and NAB shares worth more than $264,400.

During this time, Carpenter was under a community corrections order and forged medical certificates and a letter claiming she had glandular fever and was too sick to carry out her duties under the order.

In February last year, Carpenter travelled to NSW and used stolen money to buy a limited edition 2007 Subaru Liberty.

She was arrested in March last year and a search warrant found fake signatures, phone numbers, bank account information, money and SIM cards registered to stolen identities in her house.

Police also found a journal with ‘Cash Cow’ written next to the Kew woman’s account details.

Carpenter has served more than 380 days of pre-sentence detention and will appear before a judge later this year for a plea hearing.

[e-mail]