With a low risk of reoffending and having taken steps to deal with methamphetamine and gambling addictions, Kelly Samantha Tollemache’s prison sentence for a $187,000 social welfare fraud was reduced to home detention.
Tollemache was sentenced to two years three months’ imprisonment in May 2021 after pleading guilty to a ten year benefit fraud. She claimed to be single when living in a de facto relationship. It was not a particularly sophisticated fraud: her public social media pages showed she was living in a de facto relationship; benefits paid separately to both her and her partner were paid into the same bank account.
The High Court was told Tollemache’s partner had to resign from his job following her imprisonment in order to look after a twelve year old daughter. Now back on a benefit, reparation deductions were being made for his earlier benefit fraud. Tollemache gave birth just weeks before being sentenced to prison.
Justice Gault ruled the trial judge failed to give sufficient weight to Tollemache’s low risk of reoffending and personal steps taken towards rehabilitation. Her partner could return to paid work should Tollemache’s prison sentence be quashed. She was resentenced to nine months’ home detention together with sixty hours community work. The period of home detention took account two months of her initial sentence served in prison.
Tollemache v. R. – High Court (14.07.21)
21.121