A Canberra mother allegedly established a "complicated web" of fake bank accounts and health funds in her name to cover medical bills and her children's school fees.
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Fisher woman Karen Dianne Milliken, 42, allegedly used other people's names and addresses to establish phone numbers, personal loans, bank accounts and healthcare packages, racking up a bill of more than $30,000.
Ms Milliken, a mother of two, fronted the ACT Magistrate's Court on Saturday for eight fraud related charges.
Court documents showed Ms Milliken's "close friend" went to Woden Police Station in August last year to report her behaviour.
The friend told police Ms Milliken had been waiting outside homes in a street in Fisher, waiting for a package for "Steven". According to the friend, Ms Millken's ex-partner was named Steven.
The friend told Ms Milliken she thought what she was doing was fraud; Ms Milliken allegedly responded "that's not for you to worry about".
Later, the friend noticed a sticker on a letterbox in the same Fisher street that told them to contact Ms Milliken's ex-partner on a Vodafone mobile number. When police contacted him, he told police he had never been with Vodafone.
Ms Milliken also allegedly used fake accounts to buy school books and uniforms at her childrens' public school.
She allegedly established a private healthcare account in other names, using it rack up 85 expenses in dental care, massages, dieticians, hypnotherapy and physiotherapy, worth more than $6000.
Some of the accounts were allegedly in Ms Milliken's ex-partner's name, the name of the friend who had tipped off police and strangers.
She also allegedly filed a fake tax return with the Australian Taxation Office under a stranger's name linked to another bank account at the centre of a fraud investigation by school service provider, Flexi Schools.
Ms Milliken allegedly bought new phones and phone plans in other names, sometimes using her ex-partner's name or in one case, the name of a man who had lost his wallet in Narrabundah.
The magistrate refused Ms Milliken's bail on Saturday after Ms Milliken pleaded with the magistrate to consider she had two children.
She began to cry and could be heard in distress as she was led to holding.
She is being remanded in custody and will reappear in court on June 25.
