A notorious conman who cheated Centrelink out of almost $90,000 has lost his fight against deportation after arguing it was an ‘unreasonably harsh’ penalty.
Michael Boghdadi Asaad, 80, had his visa cancelled and was jailed in 2016 for receiving welfare payments on the false basis he was born in Australia.
Authorities also discovered that his true identity was Egyptian born Farouk Asaad, who had a criminal history spanning decades across the United States and Australia.
Michael Boghdadi Asaad, 80, had his visa cancelled and was jailed in 2016 for receiving welfare payments on the false basis he was born in Australia
Authorities also discovered that his true identity was Egyptian born Farouk Asaad, who had a criminal history spanning decades across the United States and Australia
Asaad arrived in Australia in the 1980s using a Canadian passport under the name of Rick Michaels.
He was then able to gain a late registration birth certificate which stated he was born in New Norfolk in Tasmania.
This enabled him to get an Australian passport which he used to receive $89,161.44 from Centrelink between 2002 and 2009.
He was convicted after a Brisbane District Court trial and sentenced to three-and-a-half years in jail for what prosecutors labelled a ‘calculated and sophisticated and determined fraud’.
His criminal history in Australia goes back to 1993 and includes fraud charges and drug charges connected with a heroin syndicate.
Before fleeing to Australia, Asaad was reportedly in and out of prisons in the United States between 1971 and 1987 on charges ranging from bank fraud to embezzlement to passing fake cheques.
When he left the United States he also left behind his wife and his stepdaughter named Heidi.
Heidi Kiernan, formerly Heidi Asaad, told Daily Mail Australia in January this year that she wanted to confront her father after learning Australian authorities were holding him at Villawood Detention Centre in Sydney.
‘I fell to my knees crying happy tears when I heard [Asaad had been detained],’ Ms Kiernan said.
‘Not only did he abandon and hurt my mother, he did me as well. I will never forgive. I am hoping to confront him in Villawood myself.’
Ms Kiernan claimed that her father committed bigamy when he married another woman while still wed to her mother.
Heidi Kiernan, formerly Heidi Asaad, told Daily Mail Australia in January this year that she wanted to confront her father after learning Australian authorities were holding him at Villawood Detention Centre
When Asaad was released from prison in 1986, he married 21-year-old Antoinette Lahood at a Las Vegas Chapel (Asaad and Lahood pictured in Australia)
It was during one of his stints in Washington State Prison where he met Australian drug lord Harry Lahood, according to Ms Kiernan.
When he was released the following year in 1986, he married 21-year-old Antoinette Lahood at a Las Vegas Chapel.
‘I saw Antoinette in 1987 and I cried to her that [Asaad] was a married man, that I was his daughter and to have a heart. She didn’t tell me a word about them being married,’ Ms Kiernan said.
A court awarded the Florida family home to Ms Kiernan’s mother, and with American authorities hot on his heels over more criminal charges, Asaad fled to Australia.
Asaad, now 80, suffers heart problems, diabetes, arthritis, dental problems and an abdominal hernia, while his 16-year-old son is severely intellectually disabled.
He fought his deportation arguing that his autistic Australian son needs him.
Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton accepted the boy ‘is very attached to his father and would suffer emotionally through further physical separation’.
But he ruled in February 2018 his visa should be cancelled because Asaad had a lack of respect for the law and would likely reoffend.
Asaad also argued visa cancellation would leave him stateless, claiming neither Egypt nor Canada are able to confirm him as one of their citizens.
A photo of Asaad’s stepdaughter Heidi from her childhood when she says Asaad abandoned her and her mother
But his case was rejected by the Federal Court on Friday, which found Mr Dutton acted within his statutory discretion in making the decision.
The court also found while the possibility he is a citizen of another country remains open, Asaad can’t claim to be stateless.
He will remain in immigration detention until he is deported.