Resume Fraud: What It Is, and What Happens in Australia

Resume Fraud: What It Is, and What Happens in Australia

Yes, it can be a crime. That is the question people actually search, and most pages answer it with a shrug.

In Victoria, section 82 of the Crimes Act 1958 reads: “A person who by any deception dishonestly obtains for himself or another any financial advantage is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to level 5 imprisonment (10 years maximum).” A salary is a financial advantage. Every state has an equivalent provision.

Whether a prosecution follows is a different question, and mostly it does not. But two Australians found out that it can.

Andrew Flanagan: $400,000, and fired on day one

In 2014 Andrew Jeffrey Flanagan was appointed General Manager Strategy and Business Development at Myer on a package reported at $400,000. He had claimed experience at companies he had never worked for, and had a friend pose as a referee — impersonating, among others, the chief executive of Bendigo Health.

He lasted one day. A representative of a company he had falsely claimed to work for contacted Myer and told them.

He later pleaded guilty in the Victorian County Court to one count of attempting to obtain a financial advantage by deception and three further counts of obtaining a financial advantage by deception — the three relating to other employers. He received a three-year community corrections order with 400 hours of unpaid work.

Veronica Theriault: 25 months

The more serious case. In 2017 Veronica Hilda Theriault was appointed chief information officer in the South Australian Department of the Premier and Cabinet, a role the ABC reported at $270,000.

She fabricated her education and work history. Her brother posed as a former supervisor to give a reference. She impersonated a second referee herself. She falsified a pay slip to negotiate a higher salary and forged a fitness-for-work letter from a doctor. Her LinkedIn profile used a photograph of the model Kate Upton.

She was employed for about a month and was paid roughly $33,000 before being terminated. In December 2019 the District Court convicted her of deception, dishonestly dealing with documents and abuse of public office, and sentenced her to 25 months’ imprisonment with a 12-month non-parole period.

What actually catches people

Neither of them was caught by a background-check company. Both were caught by someone who picked up a phone.

That is the pattern. The checks that find fabrication are ordinary:

• Qualifications. Australian institutions issue a testamur and an academic transcript, and both can be verified with the issuing body. A qualification that cannot produce a transcript is the single most common fabrication.
• Employers. Company names are searchable, and an ABN lookup will confirm whether a business existed when you say you worked there.
• Referees. The tell is a mobile number with no organisation behind it. A recruiter who calls the switchboard rather than the number you supplied will find out quickly whether the person exists in that business — which is precisely how both cases above unravelled.
• LinkedIn. Not being on it proves nothing. Being on it with dates that contradict your CV proves something.

Where positioning ends and lying begins

This is the part that matters to most people reading, because almost nobody is inventing a degree. They are wondering how far they can push.

The line is not about emphasis. Emphasis is the job — you are entitled to lead with your strongest work, describe scope in its best honest light, and leave off the roles that no longer help. None of that is deception.

The line is about assertions of fact that a third party could contradict. A title you did not hold. A qualification you did not complete. Dates that close a gap that existed. A number you cannot show the working for. Those are the things a referee call or a transcript check turns up, and they are the things that convert an awkward conversation into a terminated contract.

A worked example we deal with regularly. Someone completed two years of a degree and never finished. Claiming the degree is fraud. Listing the units completed — “Completed four units toward a Bachelor of Commerce, including financial accounting” — is accurate, verifiable, and does most of the same work. There is almost always a true version of the thing you were tempted to overstate, and it is usually more persuasive because it survives scrutiny.

If you have already done it

Two things worth knowing. Dismissal does not require a conviction: a material misrepresentation that induced the employment is generally grounds for termination on its own, whatever the police do or do not do. And it does not expire — Theriault’s CV was checked after she started, not before.

If something in a current document is not true, the cheapest moment to fix it is before anyone asks.

This page describes how these matters have been dealt with in reported Australian cases. It is not legal advice, and if you are facing a specific situation you should speak to a lawyer.

Sources

• Crimes Act 1958 (Vic), s 82 — quoted verbatim, read 19 August 2026.
• ABC News, Former SA public servant Veronica Theriault jailed for lying on CV to get job, 3 December 2019 — role, salary, falsifications, convictions and sentence.
• SBS News, Fake Myer exec ordered to do unpaid work — Flanagan’s role, package, charges, plea and sentence.