A fraudster and identity thief swindled more than $400,000 from almost two dozen victims in a sophisticated scheme before fleeing Victoria.
James Misso was jailed for four years after pleading guilty to 17 offences, including obtaining financial advantage by deception, obtaining property by deception and possessing equipment to make identification documents.
“Your offending was serious, subsisting over months and exhibiting a level of sophisticated planning, execution and scale,” Supreme Court Justice Lesley Ann Taylor said during her sentence on Friday.
Between August 2017 and July 2019 Misso swindled a total of $418, 497 from 21 people and six companies.
The 38-year-old would obtain identities of real people and check their credit scores, before using their information to change certain details, set up post office boxes, create false pay slips and other documentation.
He would use this information to contact banks and other institutions to get credit cards and loans.
He used the ill-gotten gains to fund his long-term drug addiction, but the judge noted his persistent and complex offending also netted him a car and a motorbike.
The judge said he was able to keep track of his stolen identities and occasionally re-used some of them months after.
“The interconnected web of stolen identities and associated email addresses, post office boxes, residential addresses, falsely registered telephone numbers and fraudulent pay slips was intricate,” Justice Taylor said.
One of Misso’s victims felt “ongoing hopelessness” for the faceless crime and it took eight months to untangle the debts in his name.
The man has no idea how his personal details were obtained and is extremely nervous about sharing his personal information in case something similar happens again, the judge said.
In February 2021, Misso fled the jurisdiction after he was arrested in July 2019 and managed to stay on the run for seven months before returning to Victoria.
When he was arrested, police found more than $1000 in cash, documents in other people’s names, a Colombian passport in another name, a Tasmanian driver’s licence, a Victorian learner’s permit and Medicare cards.
The fraudster had been a long-term drug user and despite stints in rehabilitation, struggled to beat his addiction, the court was told.
Despite his issues, the judge said the money and vehicles he obtained were solely for his own benefit.
“You alone created and maintained a sophisticated enterprise of repeated, blatant dishonesty,” she said.
He must serve at least two years and nine months before he is eligible for parole.
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