Bendigo Kangan TAFE caught up in $2m corruption case

Training company TayTell owner and director Rebecca Taylor and her daughter Heather Snelleksz each face four charges of obtaining financial advantage by deception and are expected to stand trial in October.

The charges arise from an alleged scam through which the company received more than $2 million of government funding under subcontracting arrangements with two TAFEs for training that allegedly did not take place. Bendigo Kangan Institute was one of the TAFEs involved.

A total of 55 charges against four people were initially laid in the case, with five charges headed to court.

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One of those caught up in the investigation, former South West TAFE executive Maurice Molan, faced Melbourne County Court on Tuesday, September 12.

Mr Molan, 64, was charged by the state's anti-corruption agency in September 2020 as part of Operation Lansdowne, which examined allegations of serious corruption involving the Victorian vocational education and training, and transport sectors.

On Thursday, September 12, 2023, Molan pleaded guilty in Melbourne County Court to a single charge of misconduct in public office.

He was fined $2500 without conviction.

Judge Liz Gaynor said it was not alleged Molan engaged in the fraudulent activity that training company TayTell owner and director Rebecca Taylor was accused of.

Molan, who had worked at South West TAFE for almost 25 years, falsely recorded that Ms Taylor was qualified to conduct an engineering course in October 2013.

The court heard that was after a colleague said there was no "hard factual evidence" to prove her qualifications.

When Molan entered the information into the system anyway, it was a "lapse of judgement", the judge accepted, and not a deliberate act to involve himself in any fraudulent activity.

TayTell was accused of receiving $1.8 million of government funding for training that allegedly did not take place.

Barrister Barnaby Johnston, representing Molan, said his client was repeatedly told by Ms Taylor that she was qualified and his biggest mistake was he took the punt.

He said Molan's misconduct occurred in the context of "savage" funding cuts to TAFEs across the state, resulting in managers having to look at alternative sources for funding to keep institutions alive.

He said education was outsourced with the TAFE taking a 20 per cent cut and the third party claiming 80 per cent.

He said his client's incentive was "really to better the interest of the TAFE".

What happened next was a "nightmarish decade" for Molan, the barrister said.

His house was raided by officers in 2016, six weeks after the death of a family member in tragic circumstances.

He was then interviewed for seven-and-a-half hours.

Mr Johnston said several items were seized during the raid, which "sent shock waves through the community".

He said Molan later attended a compulsory Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission hearing and was compliant in the investigation into the accused TayTell workers.

Mr Johnston said the "inordinate" delay in Molan's case had caused him significant anxiety and impacted him financially.

He said Molan resigned, and was then dismissed, from South West TAFE - an institution he had worked "passionately" for, for the majority of his adult working life.

Molan also had to withdraw his candidacy in the Moyne Shire Council election after previously being encouraged to represent smaller towns in the electorate.

Mr Johnston said his client was now hoping to run for a similar position in the future.

He said Molan had also suffered adverse publicity, with media failing to separate him from the fraudulent activity once the charges were dropped, and "false information" being reported about his relationship with Ms Taylor.

Mr Johnston said South West TAFE's chief executive officer Mark Fidge told police there was a personal relationship between the pair, which "found itself into the media" and was interpreted as being romantic.

"It is completely untrue," he said.

He said Molan met Ms Taylor and Mr Fidge at a cafe at Parliament House in 2012 and a "professional" connection was made.

The barrister said Molan had volunteered with a number of sporting clubs, worked for the council for free, donated blood on 100 occasions and was the inaugural president of the Koroit Irish Festival committee.

The barrister submitted 23 character references which "attest to his honesty, his compassion and determination to assist the community".

He said the references included former police officers, community members, TAFE colleagues, family members and a physio.

The barrister said you couldn't find someone more blameless than Molan.

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Crown prosecutor Grant Hayward said while it was accepted Molan was not complicit in any fraudulent activity, the false entry into the database had to be seen in the context of its relevancy to an invoice worth more than $1 million.

Molan was previously charged with unauthorised modification of computer data and four counts of obtaining a financial advantage by deception, all of which were withdrawn.

In sentencing, the judge accepted Molan had suffered humiliation and significant extra-curial punishment - where society administers its own punishment on an accused person despite any court-imposed sentence.

She said the man had otherwise lived an "exemplary pro-community, pro-social and pro-family life".

"It's over now Mr Molan," the judge said as the case closed.

Ms Taylor and her daughter are expected to stand trial in October.

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