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Islamic school leaders accused of fraud

KATE CAMPBELL, The West AustralianMarch 8, 2010, 1:47 pm

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Three Islamic school leaders are on trial accused of defrauding the state and commonwealth governments out of millions of dollars by inflating student numbers to claim extra government subsidies.

Founder of the three Islamic college campuses in Thornlie, Dianella and Kewdale, Abdallah Magar and principles Mark Brian Debowski and Aziz Magdi are standing trial in the District Court on a combined total of 27 fraud charges.

It is alleged students who had left or never attended the school were included on state and federal government census claim forms in order to receive overpayments in government grants.

State prosecutor Paul Yovich said on occasions the false claims were on a "grand scale". He said Mr Magar was the driving force behind the fraud which was designed to make up the colleges fee shortfall in order to balance their budgets.

It is alleged Dr Debowski and Dr Magdi signed the claim forms knowing they were false. Mr Yovich said the colleges did not receive fees from more than half of the student population, many of whom were from poor families.

He said the all the money went to the colleges and the men did not use the funds for personal gain.

Mr Yovich said in some cases the college claimed grants for students who had not been at the college since 2002 or students who have done their entire secondary schooling at other high schools.

He told the jury religion was a non-issue in this trial and it did not matter if it was a Catholic or Presbyterian college at the centre of these allegations.

Major fraud squad officers raided the colleges in January 2007 and charged the three men in 2008.

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