Ex-footy star escapes jail time for $37k fraud

FORMER Hobart football star Michael Maple, who ripped off his insurance company while he was in prison for sexually assaulting a 16year-old girl, won’t be sent back to jail to fraud.

But the 1994 William Leitch medallist has been ordered to repay AMP Insurance the $37,414 of income protection he fraudulently claimed with fake medical reports for a back injury while behind bars.

Maple, 56, was charged with six counts of fraud between February and July 2014, while he was serving a 2½-year sentence at Risdon Prison for aggravated sexual assault and conspiracy to interfere with a witness, the Supreme Court of Tasmania has heard.

In December last year, a jury found him guilty of four of those charges.

In passing sentence, Justice Stephen Estcourt said although Maple was in prison at the time, he was not disentitled to claim insurance benefits. But he said he was unable to submit his monthly claim forms and medical reports — instead, his sister Kim Maple falsified the forms by falsely stating that prison doctor Maurice Rybak had treated her brother each month.

Justice Estcourt said Ms Maple, who pleaded guilty to fraud, had received a fivemonth suspended prison sentence.

The judge said he wasn’t satisfied Maple encouraged his sister to falsify the forms, and also noted there had been a “considerable delay” in prosecuting him.

Justice Estcourt gave Maple a nine-month suspended jail term and a twoyear community correction order, with 210 hours of community service, plus a compensation order to repay the insurer.

The Mercury previously reported that during his March 2012 sex trial, Maple’s victim said she was approached in the foyer of a Hobart building by a stranger demanding she apologise and withdraw the allegations or her mother and friend would be stabbed.

At the time, Justice Helen Wood described Maple’s actions as an “arrogant and calculating attempt” to “derail” the prosecution of his sex charges.

Maple played 238 senior games for North Hobart, New Norfolk and Glenorchy. He also played 12 games for Tasmania and was a member of the 1987 and 1989 North Hobart premiership teams.