Killarney man is arrested over alleged Oz fraud

A MAN, with links to Killarney and the Ballyspillane area, was arrested by police in Australia last Tuesday, May 26 at Sydney Airport in relation to an alleged roofing fraud that has been the subject of an ongoing investigation by police in New South Wales.

Thomas Humphreys was refused bail when he appeared before court in Sydney last Wednesday.

Police allege the 41-year-old man posed as a tradesman and defrauded a 70-year-old woman of $103,500 after conducting unfinished work on the roof of a home between January 2019 and February 2019.

The matter was reported to police, and officers from Eastern Suburbs Police Area Command commenced an investigation into the alleged roofing scam.

On Tuesday night, officers arrested an Irish national at Sydney International Airport. He was taken to Mascot Police Station, where he was charged with eight counts of dishonestly obtaining benefit by deception, according to a statement by police following the arrest.

Police in New South Wales are continuing their investigation into the roofing scam and are searching for an accomplice they say is known as ‘John’. It is also believed he has Kerry links.

In a separate case, also last week, another Irish man, also with links to Killarney and Ballyspillane, was arrested for a separate alleged roofing scam.

Patrick Michael O’Brien was remanded in custody. Mr O’Brien had been arrested in a car outside a hotel near Sydney Airport. In this alleged case, Mr O’Brien is accused of defrauding two women of more than $900,000 for work that was alleged to have been carried out on their homes. Police in New South Wales allege the 39-year posed as a tradesman defrauding a woman out of $276,300 after carrying out work on her home and that he defrauded a 56-year old woman of $623,180 after conducting work on the roof of her house

Detective Chief Inspector Damian Goodfellow said in court that the “damage to these people was devastating”

One of the [alleged] victims had to access her superannuation to continue to make payments to try and get this work completed, which we allege there was no intention to complete,” he said. Mr O’Brien will appear in court again later this month.