According to a court hearing, a British ex-cop woven a web of lies and deceptions to obtain various high-paying positions across government organizations in Victoria.
In the County Court on Tuesday, Peter Ravenscroft, a former Sussex police officer, pleaded guilty to lying and other charges of obtaining financial advantage by deception.
To get jobs with the Victorian Department of Treasury and Finance and the Victorian Ombudsman, the father-of-four lied about both his experience and education in “staggeringly transparent fabrications.”
He also made more than $460,000 working for the Frankston Council.
Ravenscroft had previously worked for the Sussex police and the Victorian Office of Police Integrity, both of which he left in 2012.
The court heard that Ravenscroft, also known as ‘Peter Murphy,’ took over the position of Senior Investigations Officer at the Victorian Department of Treasury and Finance in 2012, according to The Herald Sun.
The ex-cop claimed to have worked as a detective inspector for the UK National Crime Squad and claimed to have studied at ‘Guildford University,’ which the court learned was not true.
Ravenscroft earned $67,631 from his job at the department before moving on to Frankston Council’s compliance and safety manager position in 2013.
Ravenscroft added a University of Leeds fellow, Master Builders Victoria degrees, and the Australian Institute of Management diplomas to his false credentials.
He earned $456,038 from the municipality between January 2013 and November 2015 before switching careers to Assistant Director of the Victorian Ombudsman’s Strategic Investigations.
Ravenscroft appears to have forgotten to inform the Ombudsman that he was under investigation at his prior position, despite the many and misleading items in his résumé.
Ravenscroft had been standing down at the council, according to former Frankston Council chief executive Dennis Hovenden, while a comprehensive inquiry into his behaviour was being performed.
Ravenscroft’s inclusions on his résumé for the Ombudsman job, according to Mr Hovenden, made it appear that he was in a “more senior function than he actually was” at the council.
Ravenscroft had also listed a referee named ‘Dr John Marshall,’ who had been contacted during Ravenscroft’s application process and claimed to be Ravenscroft’s direct supervisor at the council.
However, the case’s investigators discovered that no one named Dr. John Marshall had ever worked for the council.
Between January 2016 and February 2017, Ravenscroft earned $196,857 at the Ombudsman, before being arrested in December 2020.