Ten of South Australia’s wild fraudsters, con-artists, scammers and the crimes that got them in trouble
From accountants fleecing millions from clients to dodgy doctors, lawyers and tradies, these criminals all ended up proving crime doesn’t pay.
SA News
Don't miss out on the headlines from SA News. Followed categories will be added to My News.
More and more South Australians are becoming victims of fraud, scams and con-artists.
For some, it’s the matter of frivolously clicking the link on a dodgy text and having to change your passwords.
But for others the result is being swindled out of hundreds of thousands of dollars or having to foot the bill of a multimillion-dollar loss.
Though some rip-offs have changed thanks to the digital age, some old fashioned scam artists or fraudsters are still getting around.
According to SAPOL’s Cyber Issue Reporting System, between July 2023 and June 2024, more than $2m has been lost in scam schemes and most of the victims are people aged between 60 and 80 years old.
From a gambling addicted accountant who fleeced millions to dodgy tradies ripping off clients, here are some of the SA fraudsters who couldn’t scam the law.
Jason Poser
An accounting manager was hit with a hefty jail term after he swindled over $2m through tax claims to fuel his gambling addiction.
Jason Richard Poser, 35, was jailed for seven years after he abused his company and clients’ trust while working as a manager at SuperGuardian.
During sentencing, the District Court heard Poser stole over $2m from 33 victims between 2020 and 2022.
The court heard Poser notified each of his victims of the amounts payable to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO).
However, Poser didn’t submit the tax returns after the client paid the ATO, meaning their accounts were in credit.
He then would log onto the ATO client portal and request a refund to his bank account after changing the client’s details.
The court heard Poser sought extensions from clients before paying one by stealing from other clients.
Poser’s offending was detected after he went on paternity leave in September 2022 and another employee noticed unusual activity on one of the accounts Poser managed.
Poser, of Highbury, pleaded guilty to 34 counts of theft.
Judge Ian Press said SuperGuardian covered the shortfall of the insurance payout so the victims didn’t suffer any loss.
“Your employers did so by obtaining a bank loan in the sum of $800,000 and utilising their personal assets,” he said.
Judge Press sentenced Poser to seven years jail, with a non-parole period of three years and 11 months.
Lena Allouche
A mother-of-three who stole almost $100,000 from two employers over two years to fund her two side businesses and an international trip was spared jail – in part because she has reinvented herself as a charity worker.
Lena Allouche stood with her head bowed in the Adelaide Magistrates Court dock as she was ordered to serve a suspended sentence for 27 counts of fraud.
Magistrate Karim Soetratma said Allouche – one of the founders of the Adelaide Sisters Association – and the general public alike must be deterred from committing fraud.
“The money taken was substantial, the offending was persistent, it took place over nearly two years in breach of two positions of trust you held at two different organisations,” he said.
Allouche, 38, pleaded guilty to 27 counts of fraud committed between October 2014 and September 2016.
Between those times, she was employed as a rental property manager – first at Chehade Property Management, then at Trio Realty and Property Management.
Allouche admitted that she transferred rental payments owed to those businesses into bank accounts she controlled, totalling $97,697.85.
That money was used to support two businesses she owned – a caterer and a cleaning service – and buy her entire family Qatar Airways tickets to Lebanon.
Mr Soetratma jailed Allouche for two years and three months, with a 10-month non-parole period, but suspended that term on condition of a two-year, $500 good behaviour bond.
Scott Tolhurst
A former Barossa Valley winemaker narrowly dodged jail after he made the “incomprehensible” decision to defraud a company to fuel his sinister secret.
Scott Gregory Tolhurst, 54, of Light Pass, walked free from court for swindling close to $1m at the peak of his gambling addiction.
During sentencing, the District Court heard Tolhurst was the sole director of Bull & Bear Vineyards in 2018, a company which would onsell wine.
Tolhurst entered into a contract with Vintage Clusters to supply 6.9m litres for $9.3m – which was to be paid for in instalments and delivered by the end of February 2019.
The court heard Tolhurst deceived Vintage Clusters of $900,000 between August and September 2018.
In October 2018, Tolhurst candidly told the Director of Vintage Clusters he had diverted the money to his personal accounts and spent the entire sum on online gambling.
The court heard Vintage Clusters suffered a total financial loss of $5.7m but after negotiations, Tolhurst pleaded guilty to two counts of deception, relating to the amount of $900,000.
Judge Handshin sentenced Tolhurst to five years and one month jail, with a non-parole period of two years and eight months.
Due to Tolhurst’s remorse and extensive rehabilitation efforts, he was ordered to serve the sentence on home detention.
Tuan Chau
The mastermind behind an employment scam tricked hopeful applicants into providing personal details to defraud thousands of dollars, a court heard.
However, Tuan Chau, 46, was already eligible for parole after he stole multiple identities to obtain credit cards and open bank accounts.
During sentencing, the District Court heard Chau was the “architect” of the sophisticated fraud scheme between October 2018 and January 2021.
The court heard illegitimate employment advertisements with various Australian companies were placed onto websites such as Seek.com.
When applicants applied they provided personal information such as driver’s licence, passport and Medicare details.
“The applicants never heard back from their would-be employers,” Judge Anthony Allen said.
“The applicants, however, did become aware that persons unknown to them had assumed their identities and that bank accounts and credit cards had been obtained in their names.”
Police commenced an investigation which led them to the fraudulent job advertisements and eventually tracked Chau down.
The amount of credit Chau wrongly obtained from various banking institutions was $80,500.
The total amount of credit which became available to Chau as a consequence of the money laundering charges was $121,400.
Chau also used a victim’s personal identification information to open a post office box at the Walkerville Post Office and banked a $14,200 cheque that belonged to a university student.
Chau, of Manningham, pleaded guilty to multiple counts of dishonest dealings with documents, possessing prohibited material and money laundering.
Judge Allen sentenced Chau to five years jail, with a non-parole period of three years and three months.
The sentence was backdated to January 29, 2021, meaning Chau can apply for parole.
Daniel Clark
As the head of a non-profit organisation, Daniel Luke Clark was entrusted with a limitless credit card – which he used to feed his limitless appetite for sex clubs, alcohol and gambling.
So voracious were Clark’s addictions that he dropped $45,000 at a strip club in a single night, which he falsely wrote off as expenditure on “website video development” and “app building”.
Clark’s highrolling five-year run came to an end as he received a home detention sentence in the Port Adelaide Magistrates Court for fraud and dishonesty offences.
Magistrate Jayanthi Pandya told Clark his legacy was the near-destruction of the SA Sports Medicine Association – a group that had “nurtured” him – and ordered he get a job and pay it back.
Clark, 41, pleaded guilty to 10 counts of dishonestly dealing with property without the owner’s consent, and one count of dishonest dealings with documents.
Between December 2015 and December 2020, he took $216,380 from SASMA and spent it on strip clubs, massage parlours and other adult entertainment.
The not-for-profit only became aware of the theft during a 2022 expenses review, long after Clark had been asked to step down for spending $65,000 in a UK sex club in two days.
Ms Pandya said Clark had doctored more than 130 invoices and accounting entries to hide his actions, “undeterred” by the possibility of discovery.
She jailed Clark for two years and eight months, with a 15-month non-parole period.
She ordered that be served on home detention so that Clark could gain employment and pay compensation to SASMA.
Nikola Necic
A 40-year-old tradie avoided jail time after he scammed more than $35k from vulnerable clients and used the money to “chase” his gambling losses.
Nikola Necic was sentenced to 15 months’ jail with a non-parole period of seven months – suspended upon entering into a two-year good behaviour bond to the amount of $200.
Necic appeared in the Adelaide Magistrates Court in front of Magistrate Oliver Koehn, who also ordered the father of two to undertake 270 hours of community service, as well as to pay compensation to his three victims.
A court heard Necic told one of his victims – a 65-year-old widow – that his business partner had “withdrawn from his business account”, which meant he didn’t have enough funds to continue – before asking the woman for a loan to complete works on her bathroom.
“You asked her to loan you $10,000 and then offered to pay her back with interest over 12 months by monthly payments of $890.83,” Mr Koehn said.
“The representations made about your business partner withdrawing moneys from your business account were untrue. The bulk of the money had gone but it was spent by you, mostly on online gambling.
“You did not use the $10,000 to complete the bathroom. You never refunded the money and you never paid any of the agreed repayments.
“You used moneys paid by the victims to gamble and chase your losses, and to pay other debts and expenses.”
Necic pleaded guilty to two counts each of failing to provide goods and services within a reasonable time, and deceiving another to benefit himself.
Court documents released to The Advertiser revealed the extent of Necic’s offending in which he scammed $17,979 from a Vietnamese couple with poor English skills as well as $20,676 from a 65-year-old widow.
Dr James Spark
A “highly regarded” vascular surgeon who scammed more than $52k in taxpayers money has been handed a 10-month jail sentence – suspended upon entering into a two-year good behaviour bond in the amount of $500.
Dr James Ian Spark, 59, of Kingswood, appeared in the Adelaide Magistrates Court in front of Magistrate Benjamin Sale who ordered Dr Spark to pay back the $52,244 he scammed – by falsifying time sheets – within 14 days of signing the bond.
Mr Sale acknowledged Dr Spark’s guilty pleas saved both the court and community “the expense of a trial” – factoring that and the uncertainty of his medical employment future into sentencing.
A court heard one of Dr Spark’s so-called patients, Jane Smith, did not exist.
A court also heard Dr Spark admitted his offences were made from a sense of “self-entitlement” for the “above and beyond” work to which he was contributing.
In a signed document addressed to Mr Sale, Dr Spark apologised for entering “false information” on time-sheets throughout 2017 and 2018, which led to charges of seven counts of deception and one count of attempted deception.
Dr Spark, who worked at Flinders Medical Centre and his own practice, was originally charged with 56 counts of deceiving another to benefit himself following an ICAC investigation.
Mark Freer
A former Adelaide lawyer stole thousands of dollars from a family member and filed a false affidavit with the Supreme Court in an “extraordinary” breach of trust which brought the legal profession into disrepute, a court heard.
Mark Adam Freer, 52, was jailed for the offending which District Court Judge Paul Slattery said struck at the heart of public confidence in the legal profession.
The army veteran was working as a lawyer for the now defunct CBD law firm Warmings Solicitors in 2014-15 when he deposited two cheques totalling $67,500 on behalf of his cousin into a bank account he created, instead of the trust account of the law firm.
At trial, the court heard he withdrew all the money from the account within six weeks and spent it on expenses including credit card and rent payments, and at Coles, The Good Guys and Officeworks.
He also filed a false affidavit with the Supreme Court in the name of his aunt.
Freer was found guilty of a charge of aggravated theft and had pleaded guilty to a charge of fabricating evidence.
Judge Slattery imposed a jail term of almost three years and 11 months.
He set a non-parole period of 20 months which was backdated to the time Freer’s bail was revoked on October 26, 2022.
Patricia Evans
A “con artist” preyed on vulnerable elderly people by befriending them before sucking their savings dry, a court heard.
Patricia Evans, 73, was earning more than a judge during her elaborate scheme but the money she swindled has disappeared “virtually without a trace”.
Prosecutor Peter Salu told the District Court Evans stole $4.2m over nine years but could only be punished for stealing $280,000 — for which she is charged.
Dr Salu said Evans opportunistically befriended people, before creating problems and seeking cash to fix them – starting with small amounts and building up until their savings were “sucked dry”.
“She had a skill, a knack, a gift for finding those of an age or circumstances who needed help,” he said.
“She preyed on the vulnerable, on the trust that she established, on the friendships that she established to move into a circle of money friends … her lies to do so were complex.
“She was good at it, it was her vocation.”
The court heard Evans had convinced bank tellers to hand over money without the appropriate paperwork, which had cost them their jobs.
Evans, of Para Vista, pleaded guilty to multiple counts of theft.
Brad McCloud, for Evans, told the court his client knew that no words or apologies could compensate the victims for their stress and losses but was “immeasurably sorry” for what she did.
Mr McCloud told the court that while Evans spent some of the money on travelling expenses and $180,000 went to family members, he had no instructions beyond that.
Evans will be sentenced in October.
Hassan Rana
An Uber driver was jailed after he laundered more than $200,000 as part of an intricate mobile phone scam with links to Pakistan.
During sentencing, the District Court heard Hassan Zia Rana, 25, first came to the attention of police monitoring a scam targeting Telstra customers across Australia.
At the time, Telstra online accounts could be logged into using a “one-time pin”, which would be texted to the customer’s phone.
The court heard Telstra customers would receive a phone call from a female purporting to work for Telstra between April and May 2020.
The woman would offer a discount on behalf of the company and explain a pin was needed to activate the special.
A text would arrive on the customer’s phone and the woman would ask for the pin to be read out loud.
The pin was not linked to a discount but was the “one-time pin” that allowed the woman, or someone working with her, to log into the customer’s online account.
“That pin was then used to access the customer’s account online and a new Apple iPhone was ordered using the Telstra online shop,” Judge Heath Barklay said.
The phones would be ordered to various addresses in Mawson Lakes, regardless of where the customer lived.
The court heard Rana recruited courier drivers to collect the parcels and deliver them to him.
Police began monitoring both the driver and Rana and soon introduced an undercover operative who also started taking money from Rana to deliver him the packages.
The court heard evidence from the officer who said he met with Rana and was offered $25 per package with a $1000 bonus after 150 packages had been delivered.
On May 25, 2020, police raided Rana’s Mawson Lakes unit and found $65,000 in cash.
The court heard more than 100 Apple iPhones, with a total value of $200,000, were fraudulently ordered between April and May 2020, with $83,000 worth of phones not recovered.
Rana was found guilty after a trial of 20 counts of money laundering.
Judge Barklay found that Rana had been acting in tandem with his brother – who was based in Pakistan – and was an integral part of the scheme.
He said Rana would send money from the phones to Pakistan, but also stood to receive a significant amount of money himself.
Judge Barklay sentenced Rana to six years jail, with a non-parole period of three years and six months.
Originally published as Ten of South Australia’s wild fraudsters, con-artists, scammers and the crimes that got them in trouble
Speirs’ implosion an extraordinary moment in Australian political history
David Speirs’ bizarre departure from politics is unprecedented and removes the shackles from his successor, Vincent Tarzia.
Read more
‘Am I breathing?’: Woman describes Port Elliot pub hit-run
A young woman has spoken about the moment she was involved in an alleged hit-run outside the Royal Family Hotel in Port Elliot.
Read more