A former Department of Home Affairs employee has been sentenced for abuse of public office, unauthorised disclosure of official information, and unauthorised access to Home Affairs records of or for her family, friends, associates and tenants, over an extended period of time.
The Magistrate imposed a sentence of 14 months imprisonment, to be released immediately on a recognisance to be of good behaviour for two years.
The repeated instances of unauthorised access occurred between December 2010 and January 2022 and included accessing departmental records to:
- provide her friends with the personal details of individuals, which they later used to submit reports through the Border Watch Online Report
- provide advice and assistance to former tenants about their visa applications, including the process, progress of their application and in some instances its eventual approval
- warn her friends to stop their visa applications to avoid rejection, in one instance potentially saving them approximately $6,800
- aid in her own application to the NSW Supreme Court to remove a solicitor from the probate process of her deceased friend
- obtain and verify the visa status and personal details of several former tenants.
Following a guilty plea in August 2024, the Downing Centre Local Court in Sydney sentenced the former official on 29 October 2024 for contraventions of the Criminal Code including unauthorised access to restricted data, unauthorised disclosure of information, and abuse of public office.
In outlining the seriousness of the offending, Deputy Chief Magistrate Tsavdaridis described the conduct as ‘egregious’, ‘dishonest’ and ‘quite a fall from grace’.
This prosecution was conducted by the Office of the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions (CDPP) and was an outcome of Operation Angelo, a joint investigation commenced by the former Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity (ACLEI) and Home Affairs, for which the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) became responsible from 1 July 2023.
This is the sixth conviction obtained in matters continued by the NACC since 1 July 2023.
Background
Editor's note: On 25 November 2024, the former Department of Home Affairs employee lodged an appeal against the conviction and sentence. The appeal is listed for mention in the District Court, Downing Centre Sydney, on 6 February 2025.