The worker paid money back to the firm - then got pay slips ruled false or misleading
A Sydney accounting firm made a worker pay her own wages back to it - and a court has now penalised it $148,000.
The decision, handed down on August 27, 2026 in the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia, dealt only with penalties. The firm, Innovative Associates, and its sole director had already admitted the breaches. The court’s job was to set the price.
The employee worked as an assistant accountant from July 2019 to December 2020. She held a temporary graduate visa and a bachelor’s degree in accounting. For the first stretch of her employment, the court found, she was not paid at all.
What followed was what the agreed facts called a “cashback” scheme. The director required her to pay money to him or the firm. Those funds were then moved through a company account and paid back to her, so the transfers looked like salary. On the agreed facts, the arrangement was set up to make it appear she was being paid when, in reality, she was not.
The paperwork matched the appearance. The firm gave her 14 pay slips the court found were false or misleading - each showing the same monthly net figure while the hours varied, and most carrying payment dates that did not line up with when money actually moved. When a Fair Work Inspector began investigating in June 2021, the firm produced those pay slips to the regulator - documents it knew were false or misleading.
The court decided the case on...
The Department of Justice (DOJ) recently rolled out three initiatives aimed at enhancing the government’s ability to detect healthcare fraud. The three initiatives enlist the private sector in the...