The director of a non-accredited training company and her daughter have admitted their involvement in a $2 million scam involving South West TAFE.
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Rebecca Taylor, director of third-party training provider TayTell, and her daughter Heather Snelleksz were charged by the state's anti-corruption agency in September 2020 over an alleged multi-million-dollar corruption case involving TAFE campuses at Bendigo and Warrnambool.
They were expected to face a trial in Melbourne County Court in mid-October 2023.
But on September 26 they pleaded guilty in the same court to two counts each of obtaining financial advantage by deception.
The charge carries a maximum penalty of 10 years' jail.
Snelleksz accepted a proposed sentence of up to a three-year correction order, which is a sentence served in the community and often requires offenders do unpaid work.
The pair will face the court again in November for a further plea hearing and sentence.
Court documents obtained by The Standard show the pair dishonestly obtained for Taylor more than $1.8 million from South West TAFE between September 13, 2013 and May 29, 2014.
A further $221,471 was received from Bendigo Kangan TAFE Institute between November 12, 2014 and October 14, 2015.
It comes after former South West TAFE executive Maurice Molan, 64, of Koroit, pleaded guilty to a single charge of misconduct in public office on September 12.
He was fined $2500 without conviction.
In sentencing, Judge Liz Gaynor said it was not alleged Molan engaged in the fraudulent activity that the training company TayTell owner was accused of.
Molan falsely recorded that Taylor was qualified to conduct an engineering course at South West TAFE in October 2013.
An associate of Taylor, Nicola Clifford, was also charged by the state's anti-corruption agency in 2020 but those charges were dropped in March 2023.
The four people were originally charged with more than 55 offences, including conspiracy to defraud, obtaining financial advantage by deception, using and supplying identification information, misconduct in public office and unauthorised modification of data.
The majority of those charges were withdrawn.
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Jessica Howard
jessica.howard@warrnamboolstandard.com.au
jessica.howard@warrnamboolstandard.com.au
