Million-dollar 'struggling single mum' fraudster evicted from public housing
After 18 years of scamming the system, Sydney's worst public housing fraudster has finally been evicted.
Rebecca Khodraga, 45, claimed to be a struggling single mother while her husband ran a million-dollar business from their taxpayer-funded home.
But the fraud is finally over.
After nearly two decades, Khodraga is being evicted from her public housing unit.
Last year Khodraga pleaded guilty to fraud, was sentenced to three months' jail served in home detention and ordered to repay $86,000.
She claimed to be a struggling single mum on welfare, claiming a rental subsidy while her husband ran a lucrative business from their unit.
"She's no longer a public housing tenant and she will never, ever be allowed back into public housing," Paul Vevers from Family and Community Services (FACS) said.
Seven News broke the story earlier this year following an extensive Freedom of Information investigation.
After 18 years in the Punchbowl unit, Rebecca Khodraga's days of defrauding the public housing system are finally at an end.
However, thousands more continue to game the system, almost half of all those cases are in Greater Western Sydney.
Forty per cent of proven fraud happens in Greater Western Sydney, about double the central and northern regions.
In 2015/16, FACS received 1500 allegations of public housing fraud totalling an estimated $3.5million a year.
About 20 tenants are prosecuted annually.
"If you are in public housing and you defraud taxpayers, you're gone," Social Housing Minister Pru Goward said.
"We will get you and you will be evicted."
