A public servant sitting in the cubicle next to a man allegedly carrying out an elaborate $1 million tax fraud began noting down details of his colleague's suspicious phone calls on Post-it notes, a court has heard.
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Rishi Khandelwal, 29, is accused of using the identities of international students to file hundreds of fake tax returns to the ATO, embezzling more than $1 million.
The court has heard authorities raided his home and found bags filled with thousands of dollars in cash, a pink diamond ring, and bank cards.
As part of the alleged fraud, Khandelwal is accused of making a number of phone calls to universities from his desk at Food Standards Australia and New Zealand, a court heard on Wednesday morning.
But the public servant in a neighbouring cubicle became suspicious when he overheard Khandelwal using fake names and dates of birth, the court heard.
Eventually, the worker's suspicions led him to begin writing down the fake names and dates of birth on a series of 10 Post-it notes.
The witness told the court he heard the strange phone calls "almost every day I was in the office, several phone calls a day", and believed Khandelwal was calling universities.
"He was identifying himself with a name that wasn't Rishi Khandelwal," the witness said.
"He would say things like I need to update my contact details, I need to update my address," he said.
"The names would be spelt out... so I was just writing down what I was hearing."
The names and dates of birth on the Post-it notes were read out in court on Wednesday morning.
In cross-examination, defence barrister Jack Pappas asked the witness whether he raised his suspicions only after reading an article in The Canberra Times.
The witness said he had previously told his father of his colleague's strange behaviour, but had not gone to police until he had read the article.
Mr Pappas also quizzed the witness on why he had stopped writing the notes, and whether he had had any suspicion that phone calls were being made to the Australian Tax Office.
The witness said he could not spend his entire working day taking down notes of his colleague's strange phone calls.
He said he couldn't remember whether he had suspected calls were being made to the ATO, but admitted he would have told police if that was the case.
Khandelwal is fighting 303 fraud charges in the ACT Magistrates Court.
The hearing continues before Magistrate Peter Dingwall.
