A former immigration officer at the Department of Home Affairs has been sentenced for abuse of public office, after approving a visa application for her brother-in-law, and for causing unauthorised access to restricted data of 17 individuals held within the Department’s computer systems.
Anne McCann was sentenced to an aggregate term of 8 months imprisonment, to be released forthwith on the condition she enter into a recognisance in the sum of $10,000 to be of good behaviour for 12 months.
Between 2016 and 2021, McCann accessed the records of 17 individuals, including friends and associates, on 1,164 occasions.
In November 2019, McCann’s brother-in-law had his visitor visa application refused. On 6 December 2019, her brother-in-law reapplied for a visitor visa, and within approximately 16 minutes of lodgement, McCann self-allocated the application to herself as the visa decision-maker. McCann subsequently approved the visitor visa 3 days later.
Following a guilty plea, McCann was convicted of one count of Abuse of Public Office, contrary to section 142.2(2) and one count of Unauthorised Access to Restricted Data, contrary to section 478.1(1) of the Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth).
The sentence stems from Operation Carbunup, a joint investigation commenced by the former Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity and Home Affairs and continued by the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) from 1 July 2023. The matter was prosecuted by the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (Cth) (CDPP).
This is the ninth conviction obtained in matters continued by the NACC since 1 July 2023.