Australian charged with fraud involving K100,000

A 62-YEAR-OLD Australian man was charged in the Waigani Committal Court yesterday with fraud charges involving K100,000.
Magistrate Paul Nii adjourned the case to June 1 and extended Shaun Anthony Carden’s bail.
Carden, of Wongaling Beach, is alleged to have received salaries of more than K100,000 through false representation without proper working resident visa from the immigration and citizenship authority for the Internal Education Agency (IEA) PNG.
It was alleged that between Jan 2 and June 26, 2019, K134,261.17 was paid illegally to Carden by the IEA as his fortnightly salaries when he was yet to commence employment with the agency.
Police said Carden was accepted for the people and culture manager contract position advertised by the IEA which never existed in the structure.
The IEA requested a work permit for him from the Labour and Industrial Relations Department where he was issued a work permit which had a different job title as human resources manager and was sent to IEA’s personnel manager.
It was further alleged that Carden conspired with unknown IEA staff to pay him his salaries.
Investigations revealed that he was not employed yet, because his employment visa was not issued.
He was arrested and charged under Section 16 (1) (e) of the Immigration Act and released on a K1,000 police bail. His police bail was yesterday converted to district court bail with conditions that he surrendered his passport to the clerk of court, appear in court when his case is called.