Accused $245k Centrelink fraudster on the run after court brawl

An alleged fraudster is on the run, having not returned to her trial in a Brisbane court since the day after her family was involved in a scuffle with security outside the building.

Fatima I’lache, 65, was two weeks into a trial in the Brisbane District Court, accused of fraudulently receiving more than $240,000 in welfare payments, when she stopped coming to court.

Between 2012 and 2019, she allegedly owned and rented out her house without telling the government.

I’lache, who first moved to Australia in the 1970s as a teenager from Lebanon, was representing herself in the trial with the help of her daughter, Malak O’Mari.

O’Mari was allowed to sit at the bar with her, under an arrangement known as a “McKenzie friend”. Throughout the trial, O’Mari whispered advice in her mother’s ear and seemed to be driving her legal strategy.

At the end of the last day that I’lache appeared in court, May 25, O’Mari was involved in an incident outside the courthouse in which she was tackled by court security.

During the incident, her sister, Sarah Alachi, circled the group, yelling that O’Mari had not touched anyone.

O’Mari was eventually arrested and charged with assault, resisting arrest and obstructing a police officer or someone in aid of an officer. Her initial bail requirements prohibited her from attending the courthouse, where she had been assisting her mother.

Over the following days, I’lache sought to be excused from attending court by sending in two medical certificates, which Justice Terry Gardiner ruled were insufficient after speaking to one of the doctors.

I’lache was told via email to attend the court various times over the next week, with a warrant for her arrest issued on May 28. Police said she could not be found at her listed bail address.

With police still unable to find I’lache, the jury was dismissed on June 4.

I’lache is accused of three charges of obtaining financial advantage by deception.

The court was shown examples of tenancy agreements for a house in the east Brisbane suburb of Belmont, which I’lache said she was exempt from declaring because it was her primary residence.

In total, it was alleged that she had received $245,288.85 that she was not entitled to – in Newstart, disability pension and carer’s payments – over a seven-year period.

Much of the evidence relied upon by the prosecution was allegedly found during a 2018 raid by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and federal police on a house in Pimpama, on the northern Gold Coast.

During the raid, a plastic box of documents was found in the dining room, and a coo