VIC:Man jailed over $350,000 fraud

AAP General News (Australia)
02-01-2012
VIC:Man jailed over $350,000 fraud

By Daniel Fogarty

MELBOURNE, Feb 1 AAP - A Melbourne man who created false invoices to defraud financial
institutions of more than $350,000 has been jailed.

Marc Edward Di Cioccio, 32, generated invoices in a computer business named Mac Spot
where he worked with his older brother Andre Vincent Di Cioccio from 2005.

In July 2007, Marc Di Cioccio created two false invoices purporting to record the sale
of computer equipment valued at $294,318 to two companies associated with his brother's
business.

The invoices were used to obtain loans from Westpac Banking Corporation.

The following March he created a third false invoice purporting to record the lease
of computer equipment valued at $65,000 to a company he jointly owned with his brother.

The invoices were used to obtain a loan from Circuit Finance Pty Ltd.

A total of $359,318 was paid into Mac Spot's bank accounts as a result of the three invoices.

On Wednesday, Victorian Supreme Court Justice Cameron Macaulay sentenced Di Cioccio
to two-and-a-half years in jail, with a non-parole period of 14 months.

"In each case the invoice was a sham as there was no sale or lease, actual or intended,
of the computer equipment to any of the companies," he said.

"Although the negotiation of the loans, and submission of the applications, were undertaken
by your brother and another person, your role was to create or cause the creation of those
false invoices.

"You did so knowing that the invoices were to be used to deceive the finance companies
into granting loans to which the borrowing companies were not lawfully entitled."

Di Cioccio, formerly of Elsternwick, was found guilty by a jury of two counts of obtaining
financial advantage by deception and pleaded guilty to a third count of the same charge.

He also pleaded guilty to one count of negligently dealing with the proceeds of crime.

Andre Vincent Di Cioccio is also facing charges and will be sentenced at a later date.

AAP df/gfr/jmt

KEYWORD: LEGAL: DICIOCCIO

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