How a welfare cheat dubbed the 'Centrelink witch' 61, who was caught with $250K CASH in a safe in her housing commission home ran a 'Centrelink school' teaching others to rort the system
- Rebecca Assie, 61, pleaded guilty to teaching people how to rort welfare system
- Expert welfare cheat took cash in exchange for tips on how to claim Centrelink
- Assie was found with $250,000 in cash hidden in her housing commission home
- She told her 'customers' to pretend their kids had ADHD to get benefit payments
- Assie regularly met up with customers in McDonald's toilets to exchange cash
An expert welfare cheat who taught others to rort the system told her 'customers' to pretend their kids had ADHD and only visit certain doctors who 'didn't ask questions'.
Rebecca Assie, 61, last week pleaded guilty in the NSW District Court to running the fraud syndicate - started by her late-husband Jamal Elali - from their housing commission home in Padstow, western Sydney.
Assie - who was found with nearly $250,000 in cash in her house when it was raided by the Australian Federal Police in 2013 - admitted helping customers steal $137,397 worth of Centrelink payments between February 8, 2013 and September 3, 2015.
But the welfare cheat's guidance came at a cost, with customers only helped after a cash deposit was paid to Assie - with cash often exchanged in a McDonald's toilet.
Rebecca Assie (pictured) last week pleaded guilty to running a welfare cheating syndicate. In 2013 she was found to be hiding $250,000 in her housing commission home, which is believed to be proceeds of her crimes
Court documents seen by Daily Mail Australia reveal how Assie - under the guidance of her husband - often filled out forms on behalf of customers and wrote down what to say to ensure their claims would be approved.
One of the couple's major clients Joulan Obeid first approached them in 2012, asking for help to falsely claim carer's payments for her daughter.
Assie instructed Obeid to visit her local Centrelink office and collect the necessary forms, before handing them and cash to the expert couple who then filled them in.
Within a couple of months Obeid was approved to receive both carers allowance and carers payments.
She continued to receive the false payments until May 2015, when Centrelink ordered a review of her entitlement.
In order to help, the welfare cheating couple demanded Obeid pay $1500 in cash.
She referred to payments by using code words like: 'One kilo and half of grapes for it.'
On May 13, 2015, Obeid went to a doctor's appointment organised by Assied to get a series of medical report forms filled out.
Assie is recorded in a phone call advising Obeid to tell the doctor her daughter has 'ADHD and behave [sic] bad (at home)'.
When the first doctor refused to sign the form, Elali instructs the mother to go to see a different specialist.
In a phone call recorded by the Australian Federal Police, Obeid is heard to ask Elali: 'Why don't you sort everything out like last time?'
'They changed the rules... Centrelink became tougher. It's not like before... and the doctor we used to deal with left, he's not here anymore,' Elali responded.
Assie, 61, admitted helping customers steal $137,397 worth of Centrelink payments between February 8, 2013 and September 3, 2015
Assie would take cash payments in exchange for helping her 'customers' with their Centrelink applications. She often filled in forms for her clients, organised doctors appointments on their behalf and told them to say their children had ADHD to boost their chances of getting welfare
Needing to have the forms filled out by the end of May, Assie called Centrelink and, pretending to be Obeid, asked for an extension.
She then accompanied her to visit the doctor, but the meeting did not to go to plan and she was asked to leave just moments after introducing herself.
Assie expressed her shock to her husband over the phone, telling him: 'I don't know who told the doctor we take money?'
Elali: 'Who told him?'
Assie: 'I don't know, one of your customers...'
Elali: 'Hmmm... Why? What happened now?'
Assie: 'He's not going to fill it out for her. He said to her: "I'm not doing anything that comes from Abu Ali and Um Ali... I don't take money. they take money".'
'He said someone told him.'
Obeid's medical form was finally signed by a different doctor in late-May.
When Elali died just a few weeks later, Assie was forced to contact former customers to ask for a copy of their forms so that she could see how the syndicate founder had filled them out.
Jamal Elali (pictured) masterminded the Centrelink scam, before his wife took over when he died in 2015
Assie (pictured) had herself been claiming welfare payments since 1990 and received a total of $209,499.90 between then and 2011
Within weeks, she was back being paid by Centrelink.
In total, Obeid fraudulently obtained $66,607.69 from 2013 up to September 2015.
That same year, Assie and her late-husband also came to the aid of a mother-of-six who had her Centrelink payments cancelled after 11 years.
The couple told Farah Dagher to collect certain forms from a Centrelink office and booked her a doctor's appointment.
In 2015, the customer was told a review of her carer's allowance and carer's payment was being carried out, and she again sought help from Assie and Elali.
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They initially charged Dagher 'two sweets' - code for $2000 cash - but she ended up paying a total of more than $8000, which was exchanged at a McDonald's toilet and Chullora Marketplace.
Assie told the mother-of-six to visit a certain doctor, but Dagher said she had already been 'kicked out a few times' by that GP.
The welfare cheat then scheduled an appointment elsewhere with a doctor who did fill out the medical form without 'any questions about Dagher's children'.
Dagher received a total of $66,647 in fraudulent payments from Centrelink.
While Assie and Elali's customers were cashing in, they too received plenty of false financial help from Centrelink over the years.
Assie would often meet up with her customers in the toilets at McDonald's restaurants (stock image pictured) to exchange documents and receive her cash payments
The AFP raid on their home in 2013 uncovered $244,950 in cash, in 25 bundles of $50 notes.
Despite the wads of cash found stored in their safe, the couple spent the past 15 years living in a housing commission home.
The pair had themselves been receiving welfare since 1990, with Assie receiving a total of $209,499.90 between 1990 and 2011.
The couple also reported no taxable income from July 2008 through to June 2014.
Assie remains on bail and will return to court to be sentenced in July.
