A Kiama mother who defrauded Centrelink of $31,000 by under-declaring income from her part-time job at Woolworths has had her jail sentence overturned on appeal.
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Wollongong District Court judge Paul Conlon accepted that Lisa Marie Foster was at a very difficult point in her life when she committed the offences over a five year period.
The court heard Foster was suffering from untreated post-traumatic stress and depression following an involuntary medical procedure when she first started to under-declare her wage in 2009.
Court documents said Foster, a single mother raising three children without child support from her ex-husband, started a part-time job with Woolies in 2007 packing shelves at night in order to make ends meet.
However, she began under-declaring her income in March 2009 in order to claim more of the fortnightly single parenting payment.
Between then and October 2012, Foster received $30,494 in overpayments
She again under-declared her wages between April 2013 and March 2014, however this time was only overpaid $1,399.
The discrepancy was picked up by Centrelink in February 2014.
Foster was offered the chance to participate in a formal interview but declined.
She was subsequently charged with two counts of engaging in conduct to obtain an advantage – to which she later pleaded guilty.
She was sentenced to four months jail in Kiama Local Court last month but successfully had the sentence overturned on appeal on Friday after her lawyer said sending her to jail would have a devastating impact on her family.
Judge Conlon accepted evidence of Foster’s medical conditions and mental state at the time of the offending in sparing her a jail sentence.
She was instead released on a $1000 recognisance bond for two years.
The court heard she’d already repaid about $13,000. A formal compensation order was made for the remaining $18,000.