They say that crime doesn’t pay. But it does buy some really nice cars.
For the better part of a decade, an Australian pharmacist has been buying supercars at the expense of the Pharmaceutical Benefits program which is supposed to subsidize prescription drugs for Australians. It seems that Australian Federal Police were tipped-off about a New South Wales pharmacist allegedly making false claims under the government scheme as far back as 2014.
After an investigation, police swooped in on the gearheads sprawling grounds in Dural and seized 12 cars including a purple Lamborghini Aventador SVJ, a black Lamborghini Aventador Ultimae, a red Ferrari 488 Pista, a McLaren 765LT, a Lexus SC 400, seven BMWs including a matte-black G80 M3 and a 7-Series.
Aussie authorities estimate the value of his fraud at more than $10 million, and have duly charged the shiester with fraud, dealing with proceeds of crime, and dishonesty causing a loss to the Commonwealth; dude is facing 35 years in the clink if convicted!
While we at Demaras Racing wag our finger at this criminal for making prescription drug prices in Australia too high for granny to afford her glaucoma medication, but we respect his taste in vehicles. Quite the stunning car collection while it lasted.
Quite a collection on the government’s dime.
I can’t believe this guy was so dumb to drive around his small town in a Lamborghini and a McLaren and not think anybody would notice!
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And can you believe he got away with it for a decade?
If the Aussie government is as slow as the Spanish government tracking down stuff like that, I’m not surprised.
Now that I’ve read your comment again (saw it last night, responding this morning) I suddenly realized that there is no way ANY government agency could go so long without tracking this down. The only possibility is someone was complicit in this scam.
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In the news story I read about this incident, it indicated that “…Australian Federal Police were tipped-off…”
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I think that somebody at a gov’t agency was involved in this crime, possibly approving the charges, for a percentage of the ill-gotten loot. They got jealous and dropped a dime on the pharmacist.
I agree. The scale of the crime should have been caught in an audit much earlier.
Yes. Checks and balances. Honest mistakes can happen, and internal audits should catch them. For example, when I was a dumb teenager, I worked the electronics counter at a local department store. One day the flyer was advertising SLR cameras for 50% off, today only. Me and the other goofs had no idea what SLR meant, so EVERY camera was 50% off as far as we understood. At some point, the dep’t manager strolled by, noticed our error (shook her head in disbelief) and corrected our error. Now if our manager had been there, he would have caught the error.
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Checks and balances.
Sounds like a few people got a good deal.
Lots of cool cars! Probably not worth it in the end, but it probably felt like it cruising down the road….
I don’t know Rebecca… I’m thinking that once he/she had enough to buy one Lambo the pharmacist should have quit while ahead. Totally not worth it in the end.
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Crime doesn’t pay. It just gets you a couple cool cars until you end up in the slammer.
Yes, surely one Lambo’s enough! 😉