Covid rip-off merchants: More than 120 fraudsters jailed over $13m of dodgy sole-trader claims

About $13 million of dodgy claims for sole-trader financial support during Covid lockdowns has been clawed back, with more than 120 people convicted of fraud – including identity theft.

About $13 million of dodgy claims for sole-trader financial support during Covid lockdowns has been clawed back, with more than 120 people convicted of fraud – including identity theft.

The Daily Telegraph can reveal 13,000 suspect applications were received for NSW taxpayer-funded “microbusiness grants” during the pandemic, many from criminals exploiting the scheme’s self-assessment process.

Unsurprisingly, nearly 9000 of the bogus filings were from this state; but more than 4000 came from Western Australia.

Nearly half of all the questionable claims were paid.

A WA Police Force spokeswoman said so far 82 people there had been charged with 465 offences over $5m in allegedly illegitimate applications under the NSW scheme.

In NSW, $13m worth of payments have been recovered already and over 120 people have been convicted of fraud.

They include Bankstown couple Margaret Kosseifi and Danyal Sousan, who are now in jail for fleecing the scheme of $237,000 to fund addictions to pokies and drugs.

Margaret Kosseifi was jailed in March 2024 for fraud against a NSW Covid grants scheme.

While most of the cash clawback has been the result of audits, Kosseifi and Sousan were sprung when a second-hand laptop was handed to police, according to a recent NSW District Court judgement.

Police were able to access a Gmail account which contained messages about opening fake bank accounts and Service NSW accounts.

“There were also images of persons holding up fake identification documents.” Justice Robert Sutherland SC said in his judgment.

Police then watched Sousan visit banks from which he withdrew money and raided the couple’s home, seizing 11 mobile phones, five modems, eight SIM cards, three laptop computers, six USBs and 13 credit cards in various names.

Danyal Sousan was jailed in March 2024 for fraud against a NSW Covid grants scheme.

The USBs held names, dates of birth, addresses, driver’s licence numbers, emails and email passwords, Service NSW passwords, bank account details, Medicare card details and passport numbers.

“One of the laptops which was seized contained the detail(s) of more than 700 individual victim identifications and the particulars relating to those persons,” the judgment said.

The paid made 20 successful claims and 28 that were rejected.

Kosseifi was jailed for a minimum of three years and four months; Sousan got a minimum three-year sentence.

In all, about 63,000 claims worth $783m were paid under the microbusiness grants to traders with an annual turnover of between $30,000 and $75,000 which had suffered a decline in turnover of at least 30 per cent due to Covid restrictions. The self-assessment process was aimed at getting financial support to traders more quickly.

In his judgement in the case of Kosseifi and Sousan, Justice Sutherland quoted a decision from 1984, which he said was apt in the circumstances.

“The courts of this state have uniformly sought to make plain to persons who abuse the system of social welfare that they must expect to face heavy penalties,” Sir Laurence Street and others had said.

“The introduction into the administration of that system of overly meticulous preliminary checks before benefits are paid could result in real hardship to persons whose need for benefits is urgent and immediate. Thus it is that such susceptibility is open to abuse, which results in persons who do abuse it receiving salutary penal consequences at the hands of the courts.”

A Service NSW spokesman acknowledged its compliance checks were a burden on legitimate recipients.

“In response to feedback,” he said, the agency had simplified the process “to help ease pressures on microbusinesses, including extending the time frame for business owners to respond to requests for information.”

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Originally published as Covid rip-off merchants: More than 120 fraudsters jailed over $13m of dodgy sole-trader claims