Crime data reveals the Victorian suburbs and towns where fraudsters practice to deceive
New crime figures have revealed the worst areas for devious frauds and deceptions in Victoria. Check out the hot spots here.
Police & Courts
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Victoria’s fraud capitals have been revealed, with some regional and sleepy country towns emerging as surprising centres for devious criminal deceptions.
Local government areas (LGAs) that recorded the largest numbers of frauds and deception offences in the 12 months to the end of March 2022 show the Melbourne CBD was a hotspot for obtaining benefit by deception, with almost four times as many recorded offences as the next council area, Stonnington.
However, several regional and country towns were also home to - or the location of - fraudsters and fraud plots.
While property and deception crimes have fallen overall in the last year, some areas saw surprisingly high rates of offending, according to the latest Crime Statistics Agency data released in June.
Regional LGAs Horsham and Swan Hill stood out among the highest offence rates per 100,000 people, with Port Phillip and Wodonga not far behind.
The offence of giving false or misleading information was prosecuted less by authorities than other deceptive crimes but City of Melbourne again topped the charts with 120 recorded offences.
Northern Grampians, Ararat and again Swan Hill were outliers with high numbers of offences per capita in this category, while in Melbourne’s suburbs Port Phillip and Brimbank had the most caught committing fraud.
The western suburbs featured prominently in statistics recording other types of deception offences, led by Brimbank with 293 cases, while Hume recorded the second most offences but was eclipsed by Knox and Campaspe for per capita crimes.
It comes as the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission this week warned Australians impostor bond investment scams had soared in the first half of the year.
Losses from the fake investment opportunities had nearly tripled to more than $20m between January and June, with 228 reports of impostor bond scams, the latest Scamwatch data revealed.
ACCC deputy chair Delia Rickard said the increase had been “alarming” as she warned of red flags to look out for.
“We are urging Australians to be very cautious when presented with investment opportunities,” Ms Rickard said.
“As interest rates rise, people looking to invest in bonds are falling victim to these scams after searching online for investment opportunities.
“This is often after they complete inquiry forms on fake third-party comparison websites.
“These comparison sites can appear very convincing, and people are providing their details under the impression that these are legitimate Australian sites comparing real financial services.”
VICTORIAN FRAUDSTERS
Kristel Galvin-Samie
The former banking client relationship manager was sentenced to a two-year community corrections order in May following a series of offences labelled as “sophisticated” and “brazen” by a County Court judge.
Galvin-Samie stole hundreds-of-thousands of dollars from victims with stolen IDs after she assumed their identities using wigs and sunglasses.
“This type of behaviour could be a film script,” Judge Michael McInerney said.
Bill Vlahos
Responsible for one of Australia’s biggest ever punting scams, Vlahos was sentenced to nine years’ jail in December after pleading guilty to two charges of fraudulently obtaining $17.5m from 71 punters.
The court heard the actual losses were closer to $150m but many embarrassed punting club members declined to be a part of the court action.
Vlahos took money from punters purporting to bet on Sydney and Melbourne races each Saturday, but instead used the money to fund his lavish lifestyle, racking up a $59,000 bill at the Shangri La Hotel in Singapore and purchasing a $149,000 Lexus and $71,000 Audi.
Curtlie Keeshan
A Greensborough dole bludger who claimed to have made millions selling a self driving car idea to Volkswagen to ruse family friends out of hard earned cash avoided a jail term.
Curtlie Keeshan was sentenced in May to a two-year community corrections order after pleading guilty to obtaining property by deception.
The 28-year-old stole $150,000 from family friends in separate incidents between November 2016 and March 2017.
Keeshan duped one of his victims into giving him $100,000 after he claimed he had sold “intellectual property to Volkswagen” for millions of dollars.
The victim was told they couldn’t access their bogus cash windfall because the money was held up in a “trust”.
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