It’s never a good idea to commit any sort of fraud, but if you absolutely have to, don’t. It’s that simple! Otherwise, you could end up like Kylie Maree Monks, a 33-year-old who just pled guilty to committing fraud and receiving stolen property in Tasmania. Using a stolen SIM card from a smart meter, Monks downloaded nearly $200,000 worth of data from the web. What does that mean?
For those who are wondering how you can put a price on data downloaded, you really can’t. However, her usage amounted to what would have cost $193,000 in fees if she’d been using the cellular networks legally, which she wasn’t doing. The power company from which the SIM card was stolen noticed the outrageous charges when it received a bill from Telstra NextG for $193,187.43 for the time period between November 2009 and February 2010.
So, what did Monks do to rack up all those charges? According to The Mercury:
Monks said she downloaded dozens of movies from the internet, which she burned to compact disks and handed to Mr Freeman every couple of weeks.
She also used the card to make phone calls.
Authorities sentenced Monks to 18 months in jail with the last 12 months suspended if she’s on good behavior, which means she’ll spend a minimum of six months behind bars. Additionally, she has been ordered to repay every penny of the $193,197.43, so she’s got her work cut out for her. Let’s just hope that she doesn’t commit some other fraud in order to come up with the money for restitution.
[Via: The Mercury]