Service NSW Grant Scam Extortion – an update since we’re back on deck

September 1, 2024

To all NSW grant recipients of the 2021 COVID-19 Micro Business Grant,

We at Nature Trail have had to sidetrack support from 16th August to 31st August due to a pre-committed family leave trip to the British Isles this past fortnight. So, frustratingly we’ve been unavailable, sorry.

However, as from today, 1st September 2024 (first of Spring downunder) we are back on deck back in Australia to continue to support fellow small business victims in their the fight against Service NSW’s in its ongoing unconscionable fake debt collection scam.

This issue has been on our mind whilst away.

Since back, incoming messages all read. Thanks. All duly followed up.

If anyone, or anyone you know, has received subsequent communications from anyone purporting to be from Service NSW since this pandemic compensatory grant was approved and paid out, who is making accusations of retrospectively ineligibly and demanding the grant money back; well be aware that we have exposed this is a NSW Government bureaucratic scam.

Bloody Yes!

This Service NSW scam is unconscionable and fundamentally is illegal ‘criminal extortion‘.

What is the common definition of ‘extortion’?

SOURCE: Collins Dictionary, https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/extortion#:~:text=Extortion%20is%20the%20crime%20of,compulsion%20More%20Synonyms%20of%20extortion

To grant recipients like ourselves during 2021, the Service NSW retrospective ‘audit’ presumed our grant applicant business to be a “fraudster” until proven innocent otherwise.

Does such ring familiar bells to other victims of Service NSW so-called ‘audit’? Read the definition of extortion above again.

We consider that Service NSW’s ‘audit’ of the grant does not fit the characteristics of being a financial audit by any stretch of professional definition, given Service NSW threatening communication premise that invariable commences with baseless accusations of fraud to its targeted vulnerable micro business grant recipients.

Did Service NSW ever target QANTAS or Harvey Norman as multi-million dollar grant recipients?

Such threatening communication by a government department is not only unprofessional; it is outside the public service role of Service NSW in its legislative charter from March 2013 under Premier O’Farrell, outside NSW Governmental protocols, the NSW Public Service’s code of conduct.

It is unconscionable behaviour by public servants abusing their limitless power to micro business owners, vulnerable by the fact of their financial powerlessness to question challenge, nor able to fight back against such threatening behaviour to extort money.

Service NSW’s dodgy so-called ‘audit’ is Robodebt Mark 2.0.

This extortion racket seems to be initiated and co-ordinated by senior public servants within the NSW Government’s Service NSW department which had offered and paid out the grant compensation under the previous NSW LNP Coalition Government (under the then Premier Gladys Berejiklian MP during the pandemic lockdown crisis in 2021).

These senior public servants within the current NSW Government’s Service NSW seem to have self-appointed themselves with unprecedented inordinate power to engage in criminal extortion activity, well beyond their delegated public service powers and code of conduct, indeed above the law, with clearly impunity.

CEO Greg Wells heads up Servce NSW out of its head office in the McKell Building, Level 2, 24 Rawson Place, Haymarket in Sydney’s CBD. Executive Director Cassandra Gibbens, currently heads up Greg Wells’ internal Business Bureau (within Service NSW head office) which runs this claw back extortion racket with dozens of contracted debt collectors paid on commission, who only use their first name to contact grant recipients.

They all ultimately report to the Minns Government Minister for Customer Service and Digital Government (which includes Service NSW) Jihad Dib MP, who is in cahoots with Revenue NSW Minister for Finance Courtney Houssos MLC (of Revenue NSW/State Revenue/NSW Treasury) in this claw back extortion. This extortion racket appears politically motivated because the Minns Government is broke.

Who is ultimately accountable for this extortion racket? Premier Chris Minns.

Our guidance to small business victims in dealing with this matter:

Do not deal with anyone who phones you claiming to be from Service NSW or Revenue NSW (State Revenue/NSW Treasury) demanding your personal details and money.
Instead, only deal with Service NSW and Revenue NSW in this matter in writing, best not by email (equally convenient to these scammers), but in snail mail writing by registered mail). Don’t play into these scammers’ hands.
Do not enter into a discussion/argument to prove your eligibility again. The grant contract terminated 24 months after the final payment was made to you. (Read the relevant Clause 4.8 of the Grant’s Terms and Conditions below)
Contact us if you receive an invoice claiming the grant money be refunded and wish us to assist you. Our contact details easily found on our website.

We at Nature Trail won our fight against Service NSW grant claw back extortion on 30 April 2024 after a one year concerted battle (since 11 April 2023) and dedicated blog campaign we have branded ‘Government Indian Givers‘ situated on our Community blog ‘Mountains Drums’ on our Nature Trail tour business website.

Here’s the link: https://naturetrail.com.au/blog-category/government-indian-givers/

Since our online campaign we have received many calls and emails from similarly affected other small business victims of this extortion racket since the current Minn’s NSW Labor Government came to office on 25 March 2023.

Our Tour Director Steve, has also gone to the media to publicise this scam. We include a link to the A Current Affair programme. We highly recommend watching this 7 minute episode:

Letters sent to small business owners compared to Robodebt saga
Government-funded grants offered a lifeline to small businesses when they needed it most during the pandemic shutdown, but some businesses are now being hounded to give the money back.

Link: https://www.9now.com.au/a-current-affair/season-2024/clip-clzv2inly003a0gq73ag6j50y

[Please note that to view any episode of ‘A Current Affair’ TV programming by media owner Channel Nine first requires registration (free) on its website. There are no catches].

In addition, now that we are back on deck, we shall be escalating our fight legally.

But since we know that Service NSW bureaucrats and their legal conscripts must be regularly monitoring our blog and so modifying their scam tactics accordingly, we are not giving anything away.

So we’ll announce battle tactics once each has been despatched in due time.

This is just how we caught CEO Greg Wells and Premier Minns, each off guard respectively like ‘a deer in the headlights‘ in our media expose on A Current Affair.