Two Adelaide men will face court over allegedly defrauding the National Disability Insurance Scheme, with accusations of false claims worth more than $465,000.
One man was arrested in August and charged with 19 fraud-related offences after an investigation focused on an Adelaide-based disability provider, NDIS Minister Bill Shorten said.
The second man was expected to be summonsed to face court on similar charges.
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It has been alleged the pair knowingly submitted false claims from the plans of NDIS participants despite not having delivered support.
Shorten said the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission has also issued banning orders against two companies and the alleged offenders linked to the provider, preventing them from delivering services to NDIS participants.
“Attempting to gain money for one’s own personal benefit, money that is intended for Australians living with disability, is despicable,” Shorten said.
“I’ve said before that the huge majority of NDIS providers do the right thing, which is what makes me, the rest of the disability sector and the Australian public so angry when one hears about those who seek to abuse the system.”
The action against the Adelaide men followed the recent sentencing of a man in northern Queensland for NDIS fraud offences.
He was jailed for more than two years after pleading guilty to dishonestly obtaining a gain.
Shorten said the volume of fraud-related referrals continued to increase, with recent data showing 5540 tip-offs over the past three months, compared to 2519 for the same period a year earlier.
He said every tip-off was properly assessed.
“So if our participants, their families and carers, or anyone else suspects someone may be misappropriating NDIS funding, I implore them to report it,” the minister said.
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