An enraged government official called the people filing fraudulent claims for flood disaster assistance “scumbags.”
More than 27,000 shady claims have been submitted for relief funding meant for flood victims in NSW and Queensland this year.
Since February to the end of July, authorities have opened more than 793 investigations into allegedly false requests for disaster help.
Bill Shorten, minister of government services, promised that scammers will be apprehended.
Mr. Shorten referred to the actions as “despicable behaviour” and the perpetrators as “scumbags.”
“It is worrisome how many claims have been flagged as possibly fraudulent.”
“Services Australia is investigating these accusations around-the-clock, and anybody found guilty of defrauding the taxpayers will be brought to justice.”
The one-time $1,000 payout offered to flood victims in Queensland and NSW after the storms in February has proven to be especially alluring to scammers.
From the alleged 27,770 bogus claims relating to the floods in February and July, about $10.5 million has been withheld.
Potential scammers were prevented from getting their hands on $7 million in July alone.
The Sydney Morning Herald says that 57 cases have been sent to prosecutors out of more than 916 investigations into possible fraud of natural disaster aid programmes in the previous year.
A NSW lady who claimed compensation for the NSW bushfires in September 2019 to the Victorian bushfires at the end of that year is among the examples where the defendants were found guilty. The defendants utilised 42 stolen identities and 31 made-up identities.
Before being discovered, the lady transferred her illicit riches into 42 accounts at nine other institutions.
She received a 26-month prison term and was had to pay back $86,674.
In September 2019, a second lady from NSW received a four-month prison term for providing a false address and misleading pictures of alleged blaze damage.
A woman who fraudulently claimed four payouts in 2019 for the same fires using four different stolen identities was given a 14-month prison term and has to repay $20,342 as a result.
Services Regarding this year’s floods in NSW and Queensland, Australia received 3.5 million disaster assistance requests.
The estimated cost of damage for only the floods in February is $4.3 billion.