George Elhajja: Fawkner man steals $20k from brother’s account

Brothers don’t always see eye-to-eye, but this Fawkner man really had it in for his bro, fleecing him of $20,000.

Elhajja lied to a bank teller to get cash out of his brother’s account.

A Fawkner fraud stole more than $20,000 from his own brother by visiting banks and pretending to be the victim almost 60 times in just three months.

George Elhajja, 42, fronted Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Thursday, pleading guilty to a range of charges including obtaining financial advantage by deception.

Elhajja was living with his brother when he repeatedly went to Commonwealth bank branches in Fawkner, Abbotsford and Carlton and lied to gain access to his brother’s account.

The court heard Elhajja untruthfully told bank staff his mother had died and he had lost his wallet and needed to take out cash.

He pretended to be his brother a total of 59 times from December 2018 to February 2019, withdrawing a whopping $20,340 from his brother’s account, and signing the withdrawal receipts on his brother’s behalf.

His crime was only discovered when the victim went to the bank himself to withdraw cash from a teller on February 21, 2019 and the teller became confused upon seeing his licence, asking if he had a twin.

Elhajja admitted the crimes to police after the clothing he was seen wearing at the banks on CCTV was found in his home.

It was heard Elhajja blamed one of his brother’s not giving him a lift when he was arrested after he tried to steal a Toyota with a butter knife on March 24, 2019.

He had broken into the car at Oak Park railway station about 2pm by smashing a window but failed to get the ignition going with a knife.

The court Elhajja had also been caught driving while suspended multiple times in 2019, and had stolen petrol from Coles Express multiple times.

He also walked out of Dan Murphy’s Coburg with $230 of Johnny Walker scotch Whiskey in June 2020.

Elhajja’s lawyer said his client had “a crippling opioid dependency”, had faced rejection by a family member due to his bisexual orientation and had recently dealt with a cancer diagnosis.

The lawyer said Elhajja was acting as the carer of his two unwell parents and it would be near impossible for him to repay the money.

The lawyer claimed Elhajja’s theft from his brother was opportunistic, but Magistrate Foster disagreed, pointing out it went on for months.

“Opportunistic? Or calculated?” Mr Foster said.

Mr Foster said while Elhajja had relatively minor prior convictions, the deception could require he serve some jail time.

“I would have thought the community would absolutely expect that someone who steals $20,000 — from none other than someone’s brother — is going to receive just punishment.”

The lawyer said Elhajja had recovered from his drug problem and asked for some time to provide supporting documentation, pushing for his client to be handed only a community corrections order.

Mr Foster agreed to adjourn the matter for the lawyer to get the documents, ordering Elhajja be assessed for the order in the meantime.

But Mr Foster warned Elhajja could be taken into custody at the next hearing in August.