Two Irishmen arrested in Australian fraud probe

Two Irish nationals are likely to face criminal charges after being arrested in Australia for their alleged role in a crime syndicate which defrauded at least 150 people of almost $4m (€2.7m).

The pair were among four people arrested when the Crime and Corruption Commission (CCC) and the Queensland Police raided two so-called ‘boiler rooms’ from which households around Australia had been cold-called regarding bogus computer software and managed-investment schemes.

It has been claimed the fraud operation — dubbed the ‘Irish Boys’ — had been running for up to a decade. One office in Surfers Paradise on the Gold Coast, raided as part of Operation Unwind, found 12 people working there, while another in the suburb of Bundall had 31 staff.

Another two people were working from another premises in nearby Robina.

It is claimed the four arrested were senior figures in the syndicate, rather than employees or sales staff carrying out cold-calling of households across Australia.

During a media briefing held yesterday in the headquarters of CCC, its acting executive director Michael Scott said he expected the number of victims identified to rise way above the 150 people already known to have been defrauded.

He also suggested the total amount of money fraudulently acquired by the syndicate could rise to more than $4m, although he said it was “impossible to speculate at this stage”.

The four men, aged 32, 33, 34, and 36, were arrested and were expected to be formally charged with fraud offences.

Mr Scott said he believed the four men arrested were “key players” in the massive fraud operation, in which legitimately acquired ‘leads’ identifying people who may be responsive to cold-calling techniques were then targeted.

The amounts lost varied from $9,000 to $39,000.

In the sophisticated scam, some customers were sold a piece of betting software which claimed users could bet on both sides of a sporting event. They paid upfront for an item of which Mr Scott said “in practice it simply doesn’t work”.

He said initially the company would respond to customer queries “but as time goes on it becomes virtually impossible to make contact with the company”.

The customer’s plight, it was claimed, was further exacerbated by the use of virtual offices purporting to act out of different locations, always many hours drive away from where the buyer was located.

Meanwhile, in a separate incident, an Irishman is being treated in hospital after a couple found him lying naked in their bed in the Sydney suburb of Maroubra.

The woman, called Katie, told Australian media: “I could feel heat, the sense that someone was there.”

The man was challenged by Katie’s partner, Chris. The suspected intruder was ejected into a garden but then came back in through a window and then had a seizure.

Medics are probing possible mental health issues and the possibility drugs were involved.