Entitlement Medicare fraudster learns she will be jailed for brutal scam

A rampant con artist who swindled Medicare to pay for her lavish lifestyle hoped getting pregnant would save her a prison sentence.

Sarah Ward, 31, of Noble Park North – southeast of Melbourne – was working as a receptionist at the Melbourne Digestive Clinic when she filed hundreds of fraudulent Medicare claims totaling $181,121 for herself and her husband.

It wasn’t the first time she had illegally sponsored taxpayers, with a previous conviction in 2015 for $29,000 fraud against a Melbourne hospital.

The court heard that Ward’s theft revolved around her desperate need to “make others appear wealthy.”

Between March 2019 and when she was caught in April 2020, she made up to 80 claims a day.

Court documents show she filed 781 false Medicare patient claims in her own name and 828 in the name of her husband, Morton Ward, in the past year before the Medicare clinic’s accountants and authorities tipped off.

Ward had counted on a “get out of jail free card” because she has an 11-month-old child, whom she continues to breastfeed.

Her lawyer, Michael Allen, tried to convince Judge Geoff Chettle of the County Court of Victoria that incarcerating his client “would lead to a deterioration in the health and well-being of her child.”

But on Wednesday, the court heard that Ward’s plans had been reversed and her child could live with her in prison through the state’s Living With Mum program.

Judge Geoff Chettle said the only reason he let Ward go free pending her sentence was because the program didn’t start until after he decided how long to put her in jail.

“If the kid couldn’t go, that would have made it harder for her, so I’m bailing her out until I’ve convicted her,” he said.

The court heard that Ward showed little concern for the health and well-being of sick children when she repeatedly defrauded the Australian health system.

Ward pleaded guilty to a single charge of obtaining a financial advantage by defrauding a Commonwealth entity.

Forensic psychologist Patrick Newton told the court that Ward was motivated to steal because she came from a poor family and was bullied at school.

Mrs. Ward came to the conclusion that unless she could openly demonstrate her worthiness by accumulating the outward trappings of success, she would be destined to be repeatedly rejected and thus remain on the periphery of social groups as she had been in her youth. done,” he told the court.

“Mrs. Ward seems to have reasoned that she must either take advantage of the situation to enhance her ability to make a prosperous impression on others or be doomed to constant rejection and ostracism.”

Judge Chettle was scathing about Ward’s offense.

“This is really 1,600 crimes committed over the course of a year … daily she was disrupting the system,” he said.

As part of her job, Ward accessed the Medicare patient claims system and used it to submit false claims for consultation with the two doctors who supervised her at the clinic.

Prosecutor Adam Murphy charged Ward with ‘robbery from the Australian community’.

He further dismissed Ward’s attempts to convince Judge Chettle that she suffered from a “personality disorder” that compelled her to steal.

“Patrick Newton … said word for word “that none of the perpetrator’s traits, individually or in combination, are serious enough to reach the level of a personality disorder,” said Mr. Murphy.

The court heard that Ward had been reassigned to a psychology practice, the owners of which were unaware of her past and current offenses.

“That’s problematic,” Judge Chettle suggested.

The court heard that Ward repaid the money in full by taking $100,000 from an offset mortgage account and selling a $70,000 car. She also borrowed money from her mother.

Ward will enjoy another day of freedom on Friday before being sentenced.