A syndicate accused of scamming $4 million in government childcare subsidies allegedly staged a fake graduation ceremony to help sell the con.
Red Roses Family Day Care went to extraordinary lengths to make what police claim was an elaborate ruse appear legitimate.
The organisation purported to look after dozens of children in homes across Sydney, but allegedly not a single one was actually in its care.
A syndicate accused of scamming $4 million in government childcare subsidies allegedly staged a fake graduation ceremony to help sell the con
Videos posted to Facebook and YouTube show children being paraded across a stage and presented with a certificate and motorboard hat by an imam.
Dozens of parents and other children watch on from the audience as names are called and supposed Year 6 students make their way to the front.
Purple balloons with Red Roses' branding on them decorated the hall at Bill Lovelee Youth Centre in Chester Hill, Sydney.
The ceremony was livestreamed on Facebook on December 16 and posted to YouTube in a 26-minute video, plus a three-minute highlight reel.
Police said more than 150 parents claimed to government rebates - each one having between three and seven children.
It was not clear if the parents in the graduation audience were in on the alleged scam or were themselves duped by the syndicate.
An elaborate fake childcare scheme allegedly scammed $4 million in government childcare subsidies in just eight months with director Alee Farmann, 49, pocketing $60,000 a month
Videos posted to Facebook and YouTube show children being paraded across a stage and presented with a certificate and motorboard hat by an imam
The graduation ceremony was just one of numerous measures used to make the daycare appear above board to the outside world.
'We saw a level of sophistication or coordination in this that we don't see in outlaw motorcycle gangs,' NSW Police Acting Assistant Commissioner Stuart Smith said.
'It created time sheets, it had photographs of children that were not in care. It had mock-up areas, it had an administrative structure and rostering - like anything else in a legitimate business.
'However, the whole thing was a fraud.'
Members of the scheme pretended to look after each others' children and claimed the rebate of up to $146 a week per child, police allege.
Rewards were so lucrative that director Alee Farmann, 49, allegedly pocketed $60,000 a month and drove a brand new Range Rover.
The ceremony was livestreamed on Facebook on December 16 and posted to YouTube in a 26-minute video, plus a three-minute highlight reel
Dozens of parents and other children watch on from the audience as names are called and supposed Year 6 students make their way to the front
Red Roses' website is littered with grammar errors and the though the company's 'services' appear aimed at Sydney's Arabic community,
