A Singaporean Muslim fraudster who stole $300,000 from the NDIS was able to operate a disability support service in Melbourne despite being banned from working as a migration agent for making fraudulent applications and failing her clients.
Mumthaj Begam Kantara, 60, also known as Kantara Begam, in November pleaded guilty to 14 counts of dishonest conduct causing a loss to the NDIS for claiming $296,012 in payments for services not provided to five disabled clients between 2019 and 2022, but had her bail extended until sentencing in March.
Kantara, who dined with former NDIS Minister Bill Shorten during the same period she was stealing from the taxpayer-funded scheme, was allowed to run her Elite Smart Community Care NDIS company in Campbellfield after being deregistered as a migration agent for “extremely serious” misconduct.
She is also prohibited from providing aged care services until August 12, 2027, but her NDIS ban expires on January 17, 2026.
A former colleague told Noticer News it was shocking Kantara was able to register as a NDIS provider and commit such a massive fraud despite her history of misconduct in the migration industry, and that it was outrageous she could be allowed to re-register before even being sentenced.
The Department of Home Affairs Office of the Migration Agents Registration Authority (MARA) said in its 2017 cancellation decision that Kantara had failed to act in the legitimate interests of her clients, failed to manage client money appropriately, and made misleading and inaccurate statements in support of applications.
The office found that Kantara “was not a person of integrity or was otherwise not a fit and proper person to give immigration assistance” and that multiple conduct breaches, including fraudulent applications, had a “serious impact” on her clients.
The decision referred to complaints from three clients anonymised as Mr O, Ms K, and Mr A, and found Kantara demonstrated a “lack of regard to their dependence on her as a registration agent”, wasted their time and money, and compromised their future migration prospects.
In regards to a fourth complainant, Mr M, MARA found Kantara charged $2,000 for inaccurate student visa advice and services that were never provided, and then refused to pay a refund on request for three months and stopped answering his calls.
MARA found that Kantara took a payment from Mr O that was supposed to be for a tribunal review application fee to challenge his refused Partner visa, but treated the money as her own, using her credit card for the application fee which was repeatedly declined despite multiple attempts by the tribunal to inform her.
The tribunal then had no jurisdiction to consider the application because the fee had not been received in the timeframe allowed.
Kantara then lodged a Protection visa application on Mr O’s behalf without his knowledge or consent containing “fraudulent claims”, including stating that he feared for his life due to his ethnicity if he returned to Ghana because of a non-existent civil war.
“The application for the subclass 866 visa was made fraudulently without instruction and refused on the basis that Mr O was not a person in respect of whom Australia had protection obligations under the Act or Regulations,” the decision stated.
“The application had no prospects of success as Mr O admitted in his complaint to the Authority that ‘I in no way fear for my life if returned to my country’.”
MARA found that Kantara lodged a series of incompetent visa and review applications for Ms K that were all refused and resulted in her being excluded from Australia for three years, despite her paying Kantara $15,000 over a five-year period.
In one instance Kantara advised her client to travel overseas for “at least one day” to lodge a work visa application, and Ms K flew to India to visit family. But the regulations required her to be abroad for the application and decision, resulting in a failure to obtain the visa and costing Ms K even more money in flights and accommodation.
In regards to Mr A, MARA found that Kantara charged him $13,500 but provided inaccurate advice in regards to two visa applications and a refusal decision review, and at one stage applied for an English language requirement waiver that was not allowed.
MARA further found that Kantara “deliberately failed to engage with the Authority”, “demonstrated behaviour that indicates an indifference to the law”, and “attempted to hinder the Authority’s investigation of her conduct”.
“The Agent has demonstrated behaviour of an extremely serious nature by acting in a manner which indicates a blatant disregard for the complainants’ best interests and welfare,” the decision states.
“The Agent’s behaviour is particularly abhorrent in light of the fact that she lodged fraudulent documents purportedly signed by Mr O in an attempt to mislead the Department. I consider that this behaviour has the capacity to tarnish the migration agent profession.”
The decision also noted that while Kantara asked for leniency by claiming to suffer from a medical condition, which was not detailed for privacy reasons, she had not shown evidence of treatment or shown how it may have impacted her conduct as a migration agent.
County Court of Victoria Judge John Kelly noted during her trial that the $300,000 had not been repaid, and said Kantara had repeatedly stolen from a “vulnerable sector of the community” for three years.
Kantara’s lawyer told the court her client’s prospects for rehabilitation were good, that she had not offended since 2022, was of good character, and a mitigating factor in sentencing should be the hardship it would cause her family as she provides care for her husband, one of her children, and one of her grandchildren.
The lawyer further told the court that Kantara’s business was a genuine provider of disability support services and did not exist solely to exploit, and denied her client was motivated by greed as there was no evidence she had spent the money on luxury items.
Header image: Left, Mumthaj Begam Kantara (LinkedIn). Right, Kantara at a Multicultural business dinner with then-NDIS Minister Bill Shorten in 2022 (Facebook).
