Peter John Hoger in court for dishonestly obtain funds

A Gympie security guard has fronted court on a $50,000 Government fraud charge. But his lawyer says it was a simple mistake.

A Gympie security guard was charged with dishonestly obtaining more than $50,000 in Government benefits, after he did not report changes to his income.

Peter John Hoger, 49, appeared in Gympie Magistrates Court on Monday over what his lawyer says was an expensive mistake.

He was supported by two people in the public gallery.

The court heard Hoger, who was between the ages of 43 to 46-years-old at the time of the offending, had received $50,643.31 in Government benefits between November 26, 2015 and October 7, 2018, after he failed to report a change to his income after starting a job as a security guard.

At the time he earned $163,697.48 over the same period.

Peter Hoger in 2017, completely unaware he was fraudulently gaining more than $50k in centrelink payments from the Australian Government. Photo: Facebook

Had he reported the change to his income, he would have qualified to receive $463.61 in benefits.

This was only detected by the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) on May 21, 2020, and was immediately brought to the attention of Hoger’s, who co-operated with authorities.

“He understood he was supposed to inform Services Australia if he started work or if he was not giving care anymore … he said he was working 30 to 40 hours per week on a casual basis,” Commonwealth prosecutor Ms Gill said.

“He had asked his wife to report his earnings … he relied on his wife to look after the finances and also had access to his Centrelink account to sort out the carer payment.”

However, Hoger’s wife’s memory has slowly deteriorated due to a number of medications necessary for a number of health problems, the court heard.

Peter Hoger left the finances to his wife after he took over as caregiver for his three children, while his wife took care of the finances despite a deteriorating memory, the court heard.

“He did not realise her memory had gone so bad,” Ms Gill said.

Defence lawyer Chris Anderson said Hoger has since repaid approximately $14,000 of the $50,000 debt.

He said his client was unaware of the ongoing benefit payments because of issues with bank accounts, and did not check the account the payments were going into.

Acting magistrate John Millburn sentenced Hoger to two years behind bars, but he was immediately released into a $2000 good behaviour bond for the same amount of time.

He was also ordered to pay the remaining $36,085 in restitution.

Originally published as Peter John Hoger in court for dishonestly obtain funds