Impostor Pete Ravenscroft lied to get jobs at Treasury, Frankston Council and Victorian Ombudsman

Find out how the cheeky lying former Pommy copper scored top Melbourne government gigs raking in hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Elephant in the room: Pete Ravenscroft pleaded guilty to dishonestly obtaining a financial advantage. Picture: Facebook

A serial impostor who lied his way into well-paid government gigs with “staggeringly transparent fabrications” has avoided a jail term.

Peter Ravenscroft, 56, was sentenced in the County Court on Wednesday to a two-year community correction order after pleading guilty to perjury and multiple obtain financial advantage by deception charges.

Ravenscroft fibbed about his experience and education and fabricated references to land work at the Department of Treasury and Finance, Frankston Council and the Victorian Ombudsman.

The court heard Ravenscroft — aka ‘Peter Murphy’ — scored a senior investigations officer role at the Department of Treasury and Finance in June 2012.

Ravenscroft, a former English policeman, landed the gig after claiming to be a UK National Crime Squad detective inspector.

The impostor also claimed he completed diplomas at “Guildford University” which the court heard does not exist.

Ravenscroft, who earned $67,631 during his treasury tenure, quit in January 2013 to take a job as Frankston Council compliance and safety manager.

Ravenscroft repeated his National Gang Squad and Guildford Uni lies and added bogus qualifications including University of Leeds fellow, Master Builders Victoria and Australian Institute of Management diplomas and various forged Surrey Police and Sussex Police merits and certificates.

Ravenscroft, who raked in $456,038 while working for the council between January 2013 and November 2015, then landed a Victorian Ombudsman Strategic Investigations assistant director role.

Ravenscroft beefed up his resume to score the gig but also failed to inform the Ombudsman he had been under investigation at the council.

Former Frankston Council chief executive Dennis Hovenden told investigators Ravenscroft had been stood down while a “very detailed investigation” into his “behaviour” was conducted.

Mr Hovenden also said “comments” made by Ravenscroft on his resume to gain the Ombudsman gig “made it appear that he was in a more senior role than he actually was”.

Ravenscroft also put down a ‘Dr John Marshall’ as a reference.

The court heard Dr Marshall, who was “spoken to” during the application process, said he had been Ravenscroft’s “direct supervisor” at the council for three years.

However, investigators established no Dr John Marshall had ever been employed by the council.

Ravenscroft, who earned $196,857 at the Ombudsman from January 2016 to February 2017,

was arrested and interviewed in December, 2020.

Ravenscroft told police he studied via correspondence but couldn’t explain why there was no record of him attending multiple universities.

Ravenscroft also claimed a juiced-up tertiary gong landed on his resume by mistake because he and his wife shared the same “resume template”.

Ravenscroft told police he informed the Ombudsman he had been under investigation at Frankston Council.

Former Ombudsman employee Jenny Hardy told police she could not recollect Ravenscroft informing her of the investigation and if he had then she would have definitely “raised” it with the council.

Investigators also obtained a statement from Ravenscroft’s former Sussex Police colleague Anthony Pike who said the applications to the treasury, council and Ombudsman included “staggeringly transparent fabrications”.

Ravenscroft, who currently works full-time as a HR consultant, tendered performance reports from Frankston Council.

The court heard Ravenscroft, a father of four, left Sussex Police in July 2007 before working at the Victorian Office of Police Integrity between October 2007 and June 2012.

Ravenscroft later worked for Melbourne City Mission as a manager of justice services where he was responsible for managing a custodial diversion program in partnership with the Magistrates’ Court and the Department of Corrections.

Judge Angela Ellis said the offending was “undoubtably serious”.

“In order to secure yourself employment you not only exaggerated your experience you (also) blatantly lied,” Judge Ellis said.

“Deceiving prospective employers with such deliberate and calculated lies is appalling behaviour indeed.”

Ravenscroft, of Emerald, was convicted and ordered to perform 180 hours of unpaid community work.