Ajay Rochester - Court Ruling

Court Ruling

In June 2008, Rochester was due to appear in a Sydney court to face nine charges of receiving a financial advantage from a Commonwealth entity and fourteen charges of dishonestly obtaining a financial advantage, namely claiming a single parent payment between December 2001 and December 2005, for which (it was alleged) that she was not entitled. On 8 July she pled not guilty, based on a technicality. The matter was stood down until 9 September 2008. She later pled guilty to a reduced 14 counts of being overpaid. Her lawyer told Downing Centre Local Court that she had paid back all of the overpayment well before the court case ever eventuated, which averaged out to be an overpayment of $70 per week over 5 years of payments to which she was entitled. It was stated and later proven that it was in face Ajay herself who had found and reported the overpayment. David Cosgrove, the Centerlink employee who was found to have attempted to mislead the court by conveniently not bringing the phone records of the day Rochester had in fact called the agency to report the overpayment. The judge at one point offered to put him on trial but Rochester's counsel said she had already suffered enough and simply wanted it to be over. In her lengthy summing up the judge spoke of the media witch hunt that Rochester had been subjected to and spoke highly of her numerous charity work and good character. Rochester was released and no conviction was recorded.