A 38-year-old Adelaide man who runs a registered NDIS provider has been arrested at Adelaide Airport and charged over an alleged $5 million fraud scheme targeting the National Disability Insurance Scheme.
The man was arrested on Thursday as he was preparing to leave Australia and was taken to the Adelaide City Watchhouse.
The Australian Federal Police allege he used protected information about NDIS participants to lodge thousands of fraudulent funding claims worth about $5 million.
He has been charged with dealing with proceeds of crime and soliciting protected NDIS participant information from a National Disability Insurance Agency employee.
AFP Detective Acting Inspector Aaron Mills said the taskforce would continue pursuing people attempting to profit from government payments intended to support vulnerable Australians.
“The dedication and collective efforts of the Fraud Fusion Taskforce are vital to detect and stop those who attempt to rip off public funds.”
The first charge carries a maximum penalty of 25 years’ imprisonment, while the second carries a maximum penalty of two years.
The man has been remanded in custody and is expected to appear before the Adelaide Magistrates Court on Monday.
The arrest follows an investigation by the Australian Government’s Fraud Fusion Taskforce, which began in March after the NDIA detected unauthorised access to protected participant records.
Investigators allege a 48-year-old Adelaide woman, who was an NDIA employee, accessed more than 40 participant records and unlawfully supplied the information to the man’s NDIS provider in exchange for financial benefit.
She was charged in June and is alleged to have received more than $53,000 as part of the broader scheme.
Search warrants were subsequently executed at properties in Mawson Lakes and Blakeview and at a business in Prospect, with electronic devices seized for forensic examination.
NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commissioner Louise Glanville said misuse of NDIS funding would not be tolerated.
“Providers who seek to misuse NDIS funding undermine trust in the disability support system and put the integrity of the Scheme at risk.”
The Fraud Fusion Taskforce brings together 25 government and law enforcement agencies, including the AFP, NDIA, Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission and NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission.
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