Nurse Renee Lee Williams barred after lying about $80k Centrelink fraud
A Palmerston mum-of-three who defrauded the NT government of thousands of dollars then lied about it to renew her registration as a nurse, has been barred from the job.
Police & Courts
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A Palmerston nurse who defrauded the NT government of $80,000 then lied about it to renew her registration as a health practitioner, has been barred from the job for two years.
Renee Lee Williams was sentenced to nine months home detention in December 2020 after the mum-of-three was overpaid more than $79,000 in welfare benefits over six years because of false declarations made to Centrelink and failure to report income.
In the sentencing at Darwin Supreme Court, Acting Justice Dean Mildren allowed Williams, who had been working as a theatre nurse at Palmerston Hospital, to continue working to repay what she owed.
The Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia accused Williams of professional misconduct and successfully had her registration revoked after she lied about her criminal history, a finding by the Northern Territory Civil and Administrative Tribunal reveals.
The NTCAT corrected statement of reasons, published on November 28, shows Williams failed to provide the nursing board with written notice of her criminal charges within seven days, as required by law.
Williams was first charged over the Centrelink fraud on August 27, 2019 and was personally served the charges on January 15, 2020.
Four months later, on May 28, 2020, Williams applied to renew her nursing registration and falsely declared there had been no change to her criminal history.
The board also accused Williams of providing the health regulator with “false and misleading information” when she claimed not to have known about the charges.
In an email quoted in the NTCAT document, Williams claims she was not charged until August 2020 and “could not have known of such events” when applying for registration.
But the Darwin Local Court confirmed to NTCAT Williams had engaged a lawyer who represented her in court from March 3, 2020 – more than two months before she ticked ‘No’ to the question about her criminal history.
The tribunal found Williams had improperly obtained registration as a nurse and had behaved in a way that revealed a “pattern of dishonest behaviour” that was “substantially below the standard reasonably expected of a registered health practitioner”.
Williams was stripped of her nurses registration and disqualified from reapplying for two years from November 28 last year.
Williams was sentenced in late 2020 after pleading guilty to dishonestly causing loss to a commonwealth entity and dishonestly obtaining financial advantage from a commonwealth entity.
The Darwin Supreme Court heard Williams, then 47, was receiving Newstart and single parent payments from Centrelink between November 2011 and March 2014 while also working for NT Pub Co Pty Ltd and IMED Regional Imaging but did not once declare her income.
She earned about $74,000 and was paid more than $45,000 in Centrelink payments – over $25,000 more than she would have received had she declared her income.
Centrelink became aware of her overpayments and sent her a repayment notice in 2014, which she unsuccessfully appealed.
She was then receiving the single parent payment until March 2018, during which time she made 75 false declarations of her income and was overpaid by almost $54,000.
The court heard Williams was the sole provider for her three children, who had “particular difficulties”.
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