A former Australia Post driver who helped a multimillion-dollar fraud syndicate claims he was himself scammed and threatened into the crimes.
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When Harjeet Singh, 24, was arrested in June last year, a court heard police were investigating a wider operation said then to be valued at more than $5.35 million.
The Indian-born and Canberra-based man previously admitted to several rolled up counts of obtaining property by deception for his role in the operation which mostly targeted Telstra and its customers.
On Monday, Singh's counsel described his client as naive and desperate.
"He got into this by being scammed. This has destroyed him," defence barrister Jonathan Cooper told the ACT Supreme Court.
"The scam operates by targeting vulnerable people who are unskilled and they're immigrant workers."
An agreed statement of facts details how Singh helped dishonestly obtain dozens of phones in his capacity as a driver contracted to Australia Post and working in Ngunnawal.
The operation involved an unknown party accessing the online accounts of Telstra and Vodafone customers, ordering phones, and changing the address to within the delivery area of a particular driver.
Singh scanned 60 consignments worth about $137,000 in total last year as delivered but instead took them home.
The phones were then picked up at the end of each week between January and June and he was paid $300.
Singh told police an unknown man, described by Justice Verity McWilliam as the "true mastermind", first approached him on the street during a work day.
"If you want more money with this job, then I have something for you," that man allegedly told Singh after following him for multiple days.
"I have a big thing."
Singh claims he initially rejected the offer, which was sold as being "not any illegal thing" but as a way to "get 30 per cent off". He eventually agreed.
The unknown man allegedly threatened complaining to Australia Post when Singh asked to stop being involved months later.
On Monday, the court heard a wider investigation into the syndicate was ongoing and the man or people said to have involved Singh were yet to be caught by police.
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Prosecutor Madison Fieldus said the court should skeptically entertain Singh claiming he didn't know the operation was illegal from the start.
Ms Fieldus said evidence pointed to the man having questioned himself early on about the legitimacy of the conduct.
The court also heard Singh "continued to play an active role in the enterprise" after allegedly realising his role was illegal and asking to stop.
Justice McWilliam indicated she would sentence Singh to a term of imprisonment but is set to consider how that term will be served.
The judge said she believed suspending the rest of Singh's sentence after the seven days he has spent behind bars "would not be seen as appropriately reflecting the gravity of this crime".
Singh, who has no criminal history, is set to learn his fate in June.
- You can report a scam online with the National Anti-Scam Centre.
Tim Piccione
Tim is a journalist with the Canberra Times covering the ACT courts. He came to the nation's capital via the Daily Advertiser in Wagga. Contact: tim.piccione@canberratimes.com.au.
Tim is a journalist with the Canberra Times covering the ACT courts. He came to the nation's capital via the Daily Advertiser in Wagga. Contact: tim.piccione@canberratimes.com.au.
