Man makes hundreds of thousands of dollars after faking employment and ‘ripping off’ the system

A man has been ordered to pay back the money he scammed after twice submitting injury claims for businesses he had never worked at.

MBVIC

A man has been busted “ripping off” the system, which is meant to support injured workers, by submitting injury claims for businesses he never even worked at.

Khaled Haouchar, 43, claimed he was injured at two separate businesses, one being his sister-in-law’s cleaning company, and claimed thousands of dollars in compensation.

He was sentenced in the Melbourne Magistrates‘ Court last week after pleading guilty to two charges of obtaining financial advantage by deception, and one charge of fraudulently obtaining payments.

He was ordered to pay back the $134, 925 he fraudulently obtained, as well as being placed on an 18 month community corrections order with 300 hours of unpaid community work to complete.

The court heard Haouchar’s deception began back in 2015 when he lodged the first claim.

He stated he had injured his back, knees, and arm when he fell from a ladder while working for his sister-in-law‘s cleaning business.

Haouchar submitted an injury claim form, allegedly signed by his sister-in-law, as well as forged pay slips from her company.

His claim was accepted and he received a total of $109,177 in weekly payments over the next three years.

Haouchar’s time was up when a discrepancy in pay slips and a payment summary was picked up by WorkSafe and investigators contacted his sister-in-law.

She said she had never seen him injured and had never employed him, signed a claim form, or issued pay slips or a PAYG summary for him.

Immigration records showed Haouchar was overseas between May 2012 and September 2014 – so pay slips for June and September 2014 provided to prove his pre-injury employment could not be legitimate.

The court heard Haouchar received a further $25,748 in compensation after submitting a second claim through a different insurance agency, saying he suffered injuries to his hips, neck, shoulder and legs, when a timber beam fell on him as he demolished a residential carport in Brunswick in May 2017.

However, investigators later found the owner of the carport didn’t just not hire Haouchar, he did not know him, and the carport had been demolished seven months before the alleged injury.

WorkSafe Executive Director Insurance Roger Arnold said compensation fraud was a serious crime that took money and resources away from injured workers.

“We have checks and balances in place to ensure that those who attempt to rip off the system that supports injured workers are caught and brought to justice,” Mr Arnold said.