A 39-year-old Darwin woman has become the second person arrested over an alleged corruption and fraud scheme that saw more than $28 million claimed from the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). The Lee Point woman was detained yesterday by investigators from the Australian Government Fraud Fusion Taskforce (FFT), assisted by the Northern Territory Police Force. She was charged with five offences and bailed to appear before Darwin Local Court today.
According to a joint media release from the FFT - a 25-agency taskforce that includes the Australian Federal Police (AFP), the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA), the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC) and the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission - the investigation opened in October last year. Search warrants executed in February 2026 at a Lee Point home and business premises in Durack and Yarrawonga led to the seizure of documents and electronic devices for forensic examination.
A 47-year-old man was charged on February 18 with corruption and abuse-of-public-office offences. Forensic analysis of the seized material has now allegedly linked the woman to the same conduct. The FFT alleges the pair conspired to use her position as a public servant to refer vulnerable community members to an NDIS business the two co-owned, with more than $28 million in NDIA funding claimed since 2019 - around $18 million of which has been flagged as allegedly suspicious.
She faces five charges spanning NT and Commonwealth law: intentionally and dishonestly obtaining a financial benefit, and obtaining a benefit through deliberate deception (both under the Criminal Code 1983 (NT), each carrying a maximum seven-year sentence); corruption to influence her performance as a Northern Territory officer (also a maximum seven years); and two Commonwealth offences under the Criminal Code (Cth) - dishonestly obtaining protected NDIS agency information to gain a financial benefit, and dishonestly obtaining a gain from the NDIA - each carrying a maximum penalty of 10 years' imprisonment.
AFP Detective Inspector Aidan Milner said the taskforce's multi-agency model was central to disrupting the alleged scheme. "The Fraud Fusion Taskforce is relentless in its pursuit of anyone who seeks to exploit vulnerable Australians and steal public funds for their own personal greed," he said.
An NDIA spokesperson said the case reflected the value of coordinated enforcement, noting the agency's "strengthened integrity systems help prevent and detect wrongdoing early, protecting participants and the NDIS from exploitation." Department of Children and Families chief executive Brent Warren confirmed the former staff member involved had resigned and that the department had reviewed relevant referrals and decisions and strengthened its systems for managing conflicts of interest.
Fraud of this scale, allegedly enabled by a public servant exploiting her own position, is a reminder of how exposed this large, well-resourced insurance scheme remains to exploitation.
