'Learned nothing': Dual fraudster fails in appeal bid

Former Dual Australia claims manager Josie Gonzalez has failed in a bid to appeal her sentence and conviction after being found guilty, along with her husband Alvaro, of defrauding the underwriting agency of $17.4 million.

In October 2019 she was sentenced to nine-and-a-half years in jail, and Alvaro to seven-and-a-half years. They had pleaded not guilty to 14 counts each of obtaining a financial advantage by deception, but were convicted by a jury following a lengthy trial.

The court heard the couple began falsely billing Dual a few months after Josie joined the company in November 2010. Some 428 invoices were submitted from Jaag Lawyers, a firm they set up to carry out the crime. “Jaag” is an acronym of Josie and Alvaro Gonzalez.

At a Supreme Court of Victoria Court of Appeal hearing in March this year, Josie applied for a time extension to appeal both conviction and sentence. But in a judgment dated June 10, the application was denied as the appeals have “no real prospect of success”.

She argued that several factors – including changes in legal representation, delays in Legal Aid funding, and the complexity of the matter – had delayed her appeal.

In relation to her conviction, she claimed “a substantial miscarriage of justice” had occurred because details of the couple’s prior settlement with Dual were made available to the jury, when they should have been protected.

But three Court of Appeal judges found that only negotiations were protected, not the settlement itself.

“This proposed ground is without merit,” they said. “The application for an extension of time in which to appeal against conviction will be refused.”

Appealing her sentence, Josie argued that it was “manifestly excessive” given Dual had been repaid in full and the couple have two young daughters who now have “no parents to care for them”.

But the Court of Appeal found County Court of Victoria Judge Paul Lacava had considered these matters in sentencing, and a lack of remorse and a previous similar offence also had to be taken into account.

The judges said the fraud was “very large indeed” and Josie’s role in it was “critical”. In defrauding her employer, and as a member of the legal profession, she “acted in gross breach of trust”.

They said the maximum jail time for the offences was 20 years and that if it wasn’t for Josie’s children her sentence “could well have been higher”. Judge Lacava’s reasons for sentence were “thoughtful and thorough”.

“This was an audacious fraud that was committed in breach of trust over a period of almost two years,” they said.

“The deceit was calculated and prolonged, and took advantage of the high level of trust reposed in the applicant.

“The amount of money taken was very large, and its theft was motivated purely by greed.

“The repayment of the funds was made, apparently, because the applicant believed she had no choice rather than as a gesture of remorse.

“In our view, it is highly significant that the applicant has failed to show any remorse, and was content to get into the witness box to spin a further web of lies in order to assert her entitlement to the funds.

“We have read the transcript of the applicant’s evidence, which involved, as the sentencing judge said, a tissue of lies that can only be described as brazen.

“It is also significant that the applicant has offended in a similarly deceitful manner in the past. She appears to have learned nothing.

“The application for an extension of time to appeal against sentence will be refused.”

Click here for the full judgment.