Rich wife faces jail for dole rorts

The wife of a millionaire resources boss has been warned she is facing the prospect of jail after pleading guilty to using a false name to fraudulently claim tens of thousands of dollars in social security payments.

Julie Bohannan married the former chief executive of Bathurst Resources Hamish Bohannan in 2006, the year after he had made just over $1.8 million in taxable income.

But the Perth District Court was told that for years afterwards she claimed benefit payments under another name, consistently lying to Centrelink about where she was living, to whom she was married and what they were worth.

The court was told Mrs Bohannan claimed more than $65,000 in fraudulent payments up until 2009, despite her husband earning nearly $3.8 million in the preceding five years — a fraud Commonwealth prosecutors said was motivated by “greed not need”.

Prosecutor Sarah Oliver said Mrs Bohannan had begun falsely claiming before she had met Mr Bohannan. In 2004, when they moved in together to his luxury 20ha home, she continued to tell Centrelink she was a single mother, living with her parents with no other source of income.

This included falsifying forms and avoiding Centrelink appointments after she became pregnant again. After some payments were stopped, Mrs Bohannan began claiming family tax benefit for her new daughter Ella, despite her husband’s six-figure salary.

“This was motivated by greed, not need — this is a sustained, deliberate fraud motivated by greed with a high level of deception,” Ms Oliver said.

Defence lawyer David Edwardson pleaded with Judge Andrew Stavrianou to impose a “merciful” sentence on the 42-year-old, describing how she had suffered a chronic depressive illness having cared for her severely disabled daughter for many years.

Mr Edwardson said Mrs Bohannan’s first daughter Georgia was born with tuberous sclerosis, a rare multi-system genetic disease that causes benign tumours to grow in the brain and on other vital organs.

She also had West syndrome, a rare epileptic disorder. Now aged 16, she still needed constant care.

This had led to Mrs Bohannan suffering chronic sleep deprivation and depression.

Mr Edwardson also said she had repaid the money she claimed back to authorities in 2010.

“If ever there was a case that justifies the movement of a merciful sentence, this is the one,” Mr Edwardson said.

Mrs Bohannan will be sentenced next month.