Hervey Bay, 25 November 2025

The defendant was an NBN installer and sole director of NBN installation company. He injured himself while working in January 2024. He made a claim with WorkCover which was accepted and he was paid approximately $106,000.00 in weekly benefits.

As it turned out, the claim should not have been accepted because the defendant was not a “worker” within the meaning of the legislation and did not hold the appropriate policy. When this was identified, WorkCover sought to confirm the amount of compensation he ought to have been entitled to by attempt to determine his personal earnings.

In response to queries from WorkCover, the defendant provided falsified payslips and, later, falsified bank records to support those payslips.

When queried as to the accuracy of the records, the worker stated they were accurate.

WorkCover obtained the defendant’s true bank records and identified that the wage payments did not appear in them. As a result, WorkCover determined that his normal weekly earnings was $0 and directed him to repay the money that had been paid as weekly benefits.

The defendant repaid the full amount over a period of about 6 months.

Persons should not falsify financial records to obtain compensation.