A MAN arrested in Hanwood for his role in an international crime syndicate was sentenced in Griffith Local Court on Wednesday, May 18.
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Amitkumar Hasmukbhai Patel, an Indian national who was lawfully in Australia on a temporary visa, was sentenced to 20 months jail time, with a non-parole period of 14 months for his part in deceiving $26,335 from victims across Australia.
The court found Patel was a director and principal offender in the fraud transactions using the known Australian Taxation Office (ATO) scam.
Members of the group would convince victims they owed money to the ATO and threaten legal action, arrest and jail if they did not immediately make an electronic transfer or money order of the funds to a nominated account or post office.
Once a victim had been convinced to transfer the money the group would contact one of it’s directors, like Patel, based around Australia who would arrange for a collector to withdraw the money. The money would then be sent by the director via various transactions up the chain of command within the criminal group.
One victim, a 71-year-old women living in the ACT, was contacted and told there was a warrant for her arrest and she would lose her house, car and everything if she didn’t pay the money owed, according to police facts. The woman sent a money order for $7000 to the East Griffith Post Office and Patel attended with another man to collect the funds.
Patel was arrested on October 6, 2015, after an employee at the Hanwood Post Office became suspicious when he attempted to collect a money order of $9500 from a woman in Queensland, previously deceived by the group out of thousands of dollars.
The employee contacted Australia Post security and was told not to pay the money. Police later had the employee contact Patel to say the money order would be paid, leading to his arrest.
Patel was charged with knowingly directing activities of a criminal group, knowingly deriving a material benefit from a criminal group, dishonestly obtaining a financial advantage of $26,335 by deception and attempting to dishonestly obtain a financial advantage of $13,550 by deception.
A search of Patel’s residence on Coolah Street in Griffith found original Western Union money transfer documents, bank deposit receipts and $3100 in cash he admitted had been transferred by a victim of the scheme from Ivanhoe.