Australia jails man for stealing US$16.6m
Source: AFP |
March 20, 2013, Wednesday
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A man who led a playboy lifestyle while claiming to be a Tahitian prince was jailed yesterday for 14 years for stealing A$16 million (US$16.6 million) from an Australian health department.
New Zealand-born Hohepa Morehu-Barlow, also known as Joel Barlow, pleaded guilty to eight offenses including forgery and aggravated fraud in Brisbane District Court.
In sentencing, judge Kerry O'Brien said Morehu-Barlow ran an audacious but uncomplicated scheme in which he diverted funds from a grants scheme he ran to fund his extravagant lifestyle.
"I cannot ignore the amount of money that's involved here ... the fact that these are public monies," O'Brien said, The Australian newspaper reported.
The charges against the 37-year-old relate to his defrauding of the state government while he worked as a middle manager for Queensland Health between 2007 and 2011.
"The funds diverted by (Morehu-Barlow) were public monies earmarked ... to support charities and other community groups," prosecutor Todd Fuller told the court, the Brisbane Courier-Mail reported.
"The money was used to fund a lavish lifestyle... (for a so-called) Tahitian prince forced to work to gain his (royal) inheritance."
The court heard Morehu-Barlow regularly signed bank documents using the letters HRH, short for His Royal Highness.
When arrested in 2011, police found a trove of luxury goods. Many of the items seized were auctioned earlier this month, including a life-size horse lamp, a Hermes saddle, and a Louis Vuitton surf board.
The scheme unraveled in 2011 when he faked an invoice showing he had paid A$11 million to a Queensland university.
A fellow public servant became suspicious and found the money went to a company controlled by Morehu-Barlow.
New Zealand-born Hohepa Morehu-Barlow, also known as Joel Barlow, pleaded guilty to eight offenses including forgery and aggravated fraud in Brisbane District Court.
In sentencing, judge Kerry O'Brien said Morehu-Barlow ran an audacious but uncomplicated scheme in which he diverted funds from a grants scheme he ran to fund his extravagant lifestyle.
"I cannot ignore the amount of money that's involved here ... the fact that these are public monies," O'Brien said, The Australian newspaper reported.
The charges against the 37-year-old relate to his defrauding of the state government while he worked as a middle manager for Queensland Health between 2007 and 2011.
"The funds diverted by (Morehu-Barlow) were public monies earmarked ... to support charities and other community groups," prosecutor Todd Fuller told the court, the Brisbane Courier-Mail reported.
"The money was used to fund a lavish lifestyle... (for a so-called) Tahitian prince forced to work to gain his (royal) inheritance."
The court heard Morehu-Barlow regularly signed bank documents using the letters HRH, short for His Royal Highness.
When arrested in 2011, police found a trove of luxury goods. Many of the items seized were auctioned earlier this month, including a life-size horse lamp, a Hermes saddle, and a Louis Vuitton surf board.
The scheme unraveled in 2011 when he faked an invoice showing he had paid A$11 million to a Queensland university.
A fellow public servant became suspicious and found the money went to a company controlled by Morehu-Barlow.
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