NILLUMBIK: $100,000 fake offer sent to Council
Police are investigating a bogus letter sent to Nillumbik Council in which it was claimed a local philanthropist would donate $100,000 towards a bronze statute of the late Sigmund Jorgensen.
The letter, falsely mailed in the name of an Eltham man, called on Councillors to spend local government funds on a statue at Diamond Hills Reserve in Plenty River Drive.
Mr Jorgensen died in 2019 at age 79. He was a former Nillumbik Shire Mayor, and his family was closely associated with Montsalvat artists’ colony at Eltham.
The letter was convincing enough that Mayor Cr John Dumaresq had discussions about the proposal with Councillot colleagues, and the Council’s Arts and Cultural Development Team.
The alert was raised when Cr Dumaresq sent a letter of acknowledgement to the Eltham man. The man has also been the victim of identity theft, with a letter falsely sent in his name to the University of Melbourne.
The Crimes Act s83a provides penalties of up to 10 years for creating bogus letters: A person must not make a false document with the intention that he or she, or another person, shall use it to induce another person to accept it as genuine, and by reason of so accepting it to do or not to do some act to that other person’s, or to another person’s prejudice.
The fake offer was sent to the Council by post. It is illegal to use a carriage service to send bogus mail.