Centrelink fraud: mum Renjena Anyer Nyour avoids jail sentence over $45,000 Centrelink rort
A mum-of-four from Melbourne’s west worked for seven different employers while she pocketed $45,000 in dole cash for several years before she was caught. But she beat a jail term — and only has to repay $87 a fortnight.
Wyndham Leader
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A Melbourne mum has narrowly avoided a jail sentence despite ripping more than $45,000 via a lengthy Centrelink rort.
Renjena Anyer Nyour, 41, was given a suspended jail sentence at the Werribee Magistrates’ Court on March 2 after pleading guilty to dishonestly causing risk of loss to the Commonwealth.
Nyour’s four-year scam stretched between April 2012 and November 2016.
The mother-of-four from Melbourne’s west was on Newstart allowance while she worked for seven different family daycare education providers.
Nyour earned $181,000 while she pocketed her dole cheques but did not declare this income to Centrelink.
Her daycare wages and dole cash were paid into two different bank accounts held in her name.
Nyour “falsely represented” her circumstances 103 times during the offending period.
Her rort was uncovered via data matching in 2017.
Nyour was “assessed as not entitled” to any of the $45,440 she received through her Newstart allowance.
Centrelink asked Nyour to attend a “formal interview” in 2018 but she “declined”, the court heard.
The court also heard Nyour’s husband “took control of the forms filled out” but she took responsibility for the deception.
Nyour’s counsel said her client – who arrived to Australia as a refugee from Sudan in 2004 – was illiterate.
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Magistrate Urfa Masood said Nyour was “accepting responsibility” but “general deterrence” remained a significant factor in sentencing.
“This sort of offending is unacceptable,” she said.
Nyour – who has so far paid back $241.30 – was given a four-month jail sentence wholly suspended for 12 months.
She also plans to repay $87 per fortnight towards her Centrelink debt.