Melbourne COVID hotels caught in security ghosting rorts

ILLEGAL cash payments to guards and billing rorts have been exposed in Victoria’s COVID-19 hotel quarantine debacle.

Unscrupulous security firms, being probed over their part in triggering Melbourne’s second coronavirus wave, exploited the pandemic by charging taxpayers for shifts never worked.

The rort, known as “ghosting”, led to hazardous understaffing in hotels, with those who questioned operators over the scam even being threatened. Cash payments agreed between providers and workers, long a scourge in the security industry, have also been widely used. Other alarming claims detailed by security industry figures and quarantine hotel insiders include that:

●Hotel guards slept with guests;

●Security personnel wore potentially compromised personal protective equipment for up to eight hours without changing it;

●Guards shook hands and shared lifts in a major breach of regulations;

●Some had just six hours of infection control training and were caught sleeping on the job; and

●Quarantined families were allowed to go between rooms to play cards and games with others.

Under the ghosting rort, operators would charge authorities for providing a certain number of staff for a shift, but hired several fewer.

Fake names would be given for the non-existent workers. One source from within the hotel quarantine program said ghosting was rife, and the State Government had been warned months ago.

“Hotel staff often found that processes were incomplete. When raised with people running various security, they were threatened ... it’s a common practice,” the source said.