22-year-old Pratik Hasmukh Davariya, who arrived in Australia as an international student was found guilty last month for scamming Australian residents. Today, Judge sentenced him for period of 1 year with a non-parole period of nine months.
He was arrested in August 2015 from the South Australian Riverland for being part of a scam that threatened Australians for supposedly unpaid taxes.
In May this year, Pratik pleaded guilty to nine counts of involvement in money laundering at a hearing in Adelaide Magistrates Court.
The Magistrate today jailed Davariya for just over a year with a nine-month non-parole period, but due to time spent in custody, Davariya will be eligible for release almost immediately.
The court heard that Pratik was keen to buy a car after he arrived in Australia on a student visa.
When he shared this with a friend in India, he was put in touch with another contact, who told Davariya that his bank account could be used to transfer money offshore to India and Thailand.
Davariya was unaware that these contacts were tax scammers who were calling Australian residents, claiming to be from Australian Taxation Office and threatening people with fines of up to $125,000, or jail, for supposedly unpaid taxes.
This fraud yielded them $43,905 out of which Davariya received about $2000 for his role, the court heard.
Magistrate Paul Bennett said the student had thought the money was from a gambling syndicate, so knew it to be "fishy".
"I accept you did not devise the scam or make the phone calls," the magistrate said.
"Whilst you had a lesser role, your role was no doubt critical. The scam you assisted used intimidation and, like all scams, preyed on the vulnerable."
The Magistrate today jailed Davariya for just over a year with a nine-month non-parole period, but due to time spent in custody, Davariya will be eligible for release almost immediately.
However Davariya's student visa has expired. He will now be taken into immigration detention and is likely to be deported once freed from jail.
