INTERNET FRAUD ON A GRAND NATIONAL SCALE
A $2 million bank error led to the detection of a series of online frauds allegedly committed by a Brisbane teenager, a court has heard.
University of Queensland student Philip John Heggie, 19, was banned from using the internet from New Year's Day this year when he faced court following his arrest on fraud charges.
The charges were laid after the Suncorp Bank erroneously deposited $2 million into an account allegedly held and operated by Mr Heggie using a false name.
A suspicious bank teller alerted police after Mr Heggie allegedly transferred the entire sum before trying to withdraw $5000 at Garden City Shopping Centre, south of Brisbane, on New Year's Eve.
But ongoing investigations into his online banking affairs led to further charges and, in March this year, the discovery that he was allegedly continuing his internet fraud while on bail.
This morning the business student was back in court on a further 54 charges relating to him allegedly committing more online fraud by hacking computers.
Prosecutor Rebecca Marks told the court police had found Mr Heggie had set up 38 accounts - a mixture of bank, eBay and PayPal accounts - all in fake names and used the accounts to sell non-existent goods online, then keeping the cash transferred through the bogus accounts by the consumer.
In opposing an application for his bail, Ms Marks said Mr Heggie had committed some of the offences while on bail with a condition not to use the internet.
The investigation into his affairs was continuing as his computer had been seized and was being examined by police, she said.
"If he's released there's an unacceptable risk he will continue to defraud the public," she said.
But solicitor Emily O'Hagan, for Mr Heggie, said her client had been in Arthur Gorrie Correctional Centre for the past two months after he was charged with the latest set of charges.
She said if released, he could re-commence his university course and secure a job as a pizza deliverer.
This, along with a move to live with his mother on a farm in Toowoomba, would would give him "structure, support and supervision".
Ms O'Hagan said her client's mother was prepared to provide a $5000 surety and Mr Heggie understood if he breached any condition of his bail - including an order he not use the internet - his mother would lose the surety.
But Magistrate John Costello refused to allow bail for Mr Heggie, who faces a total of 57 charges including fraud, attempted fraud and uttering a false document.
The teenager also faces 39 charges of obtaining and or dealing with identification information, 10 counts of computer hacking and or misuse and five counts of receiving tainted property.
"The evidence is strong," Mr Costello said.
Mr Heggie was remanded in custody.
His case will be back in court in June.
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COMMENT: Under our legal system, individuals are regarded as innocent until proven guilty.
But if this teenager is eventually found guilty of these alleged crimes, nothing but a long stint
in a state penitentiary will suffice as a deterrent to others contemplating such online fraud.
Heggie would get all the "structure, support and supervision" he would ever need in the loving
comfort of a Queensland prison cell.
