Ex-conwoman Jody Thomson, previously Jody Harris, ‘must hand over donation accounts’
A former notorious conwoman who has become one of the nation’s most active fundraisers will have to show she has properly accounted for donations.
A former notorious conwoman who has become one of the nation’s most active fundraisers will have to show she has properly accounted for donations, after Indigenous community members sounded an alarm about a lack of transparency.
Investigations by Queensland’s Office of Fair Trading into Jody Thomson, previously known as “Catch Me If You Can” thief Jody Harris, began on Monday.
Preliminary checks have found no evidence that Ms Thomson has ever applied for or been granted a “sanction” or permit for her many public appeals for money, the office said.
For more than 3½ years, Ms Thomson has effectively been running an unregistered charity through her business Dreamtime Aroha. Her appeals to the public for donations on fundraising platform GoFundMe and social media sites including Facebook and Instagram have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars, The Weekend Australian Magazine has revealed.
Investigations are under way into whether she was authorised to fundraise by partnering with a registered charity, a spokeswoman for the Attorney-General, Deb Frecklington, said.
“The attorney-general has ordered the Office of Fair Trading to commence an immediate investigation. This commenced this morning,” she said on Monday afternoon. “The investigation will establish whether appeals by this organisation were sanctioned and also analyse the records kept to assess whether the money collected has been properly accounted for.
“The attorney-general knows how hard Queenslanders work for their money, and whether someone is giving a dollar or a much larger donation, people must have confidence when they make a charitable contribution that it is used for its intended purpose.”
One-off public fundraising appeals by non-charities in Queensland require a sanction, with limited exceptions in cases such as appeals for family members.
If an individual or organisation is fundraising through an existing charity, they must comply with conditions including using the charity’s name and depositing all proceeds into the charity’s account, a Queensland government website states.
The charity must also distribute the proceeds and include the income and expenditure as part of their financial accounts.
Dreamtime Aroha has not used a registered charity’s name in a barrage of public appeals for donations for charitable causes since launching in April 2021 as an online business selling Aboriginal dolls.
Many donations to Dreamtime Aroha’s appeals have gone directly to bank accounts in the business’s name, where there is no public visibility of money in and out. The business is registered solely to Ms Thomson.
Failing to properly account for monetary donations or unlawfully converting the proceeds of an appeal to a person’s own use are prosecutable offences under Queensland’s Collections Act.
Breaches can carry terms of imprisonment.
Ms Thomson, 46, is the daughter of prisoners advocate Debbie Kilroy, founder of registered charity Sisters Inside.
When known as Jody Harris almost two decades ago, Ms Thomson stole the identities of women across the country to fund a lavish lifestyle, and taunted police trying to catch her.
She was arrested in 2006 and is not known or alleged to have committed any offences since.
Dreamtime Aroha’s compliance with the Collections Act is expected to form part of the investigation. Ms Thomson has declined to answer questions from The Australian, engaging a lawyer who said she had been the target of false, malicious online attacks.
The Attorney-General’s spokeswoman said: “The Office of Fair Trading has advised the Attorney-General that it has no record of Dreamtime Aroha, Jody Thomson or Jody Harris having ever applied for a sanction or registration, nor do they appear to be registered with (charities regulator) the ACNC.
“Whether Dreamtime Aroha, Jody Thomson or Jody Harris have partnered with a registered charity will be further investigated by the Office of Fair Trading.”
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