A man used the names of ANU students in more than 50 fraudulent health insurance claims, receiving $12,000 in the alleged scam, police have told a court.
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Borong Liu, 28, of Cook lodged fake receipts for appointments at four Canberra medical centres to get the money, and at times would pretend to be a woman when following up claims with insurer Allianz Global Assistance on the phone, according to documents tendered to the court.
Police said Mr Liu, who faced the ACT Magistrates Court on Wednesday for 154 charges of using a fake medical receipt to dishonestly gain money, made 58 fraudulent claims between March 2013 and December 2014.
Magistrate Robert Cook refused Mr Liu's bail application, saying there was a significant risk he would avoid future court hearings after prosecutors argued he had not tried to renew his visa, due to expire in August.
AGA, an overseas student health care provider, began investigating one of Mr Liu's fraudulent receipts after noticing a discrepancy in November 2014, and found the policy holder identified never made a claim, police said.
Further investigations showed a large number of similar claims had been made using the details of international students at ANU, and Canberra health providers said they had never made the appointments, it is alleged.
Police began investigating in June 2015 and say Mr Liu had claims processed at ANU's student exchange and the University of Canberra Student Central, where he received vouchers that he redeemed for cash at Australia Post.
It's alleged Mr Liu, a former ANU international student, would also submit claims online logging onto the AGA website using details belonging to another policy holder, and temporarily change their account's bank details, phone number and address to others traced back to him.
Mr Liu did not enter pleas to the charges, but speaking through a Mandarin interpreter said he would guarantee "100 per cent" he would show up at court and through his defence counsel asked for bail with a condition he handed in his passport.
"In my opinion, I had no fault in this matter and I need to explain this to my lawyer," he said.
However prosecutors argued Mr Liu had no connections to the ACT and posed a risk of fleeing.
In refusing bail, Magistrate Cook described the alleged fraud as "sophisticated", said he wasn't convinced that Mr Liu would return to court even if he surrendered his passport, and that the likelihood he wouldn't appear was an "unmanageable risk".
The case was adjourned until June 19 for another bail hearing.
