A corrupt Chinese former executive at Tourism Australia who falsified visa documents and charged taxpayers for $49,000 in flights has been spared jail – because of the impact it would have on her mental health.
Quan Liu, 50, who went by Christine Liu while working as chief financial officer at the government agency, illegally used public funds to buy herself six business class flights to China over a 14-month period in 2022 and 2023 to visit her parents, who were suffering from Covid.
She also used a misleading visa letter to support claims her trips were work-related, and falsified a Tourism Australia letter to support her cousin’s visa application after he was denied entry into Australia as a tourist, and was fired from her $275,000-a-year job after getting caught.
Liu previously pleaded guilty to dishonestly obtaining a financial gain and falsifying official documents, and appeared in the NSW District Court on Friday where Judge Ross Hudson sentenced her to 30 months’ imprisonment, to be served in the community.
Judge Hudson also ordered Liu to complete 120 hours of community service, and pay off the remainder of her debt to Tourism Australia, about $13,000, Newswire reported.
He told the court that he could impose an Intensive Corrections Order rather than send her to jail because of Liu’s exceptional circumstances, including her genuine remorse and regret, lack of criminal history, and her mental health, which he found would be affected by a custodial sentence.
The court previously heard Liu was suffering from the onset of a major depressive illness when she took the flights, and was now getting psychological help.
Liu also claimed her offending was affected by her fear of Covid, which she believed she would be safer from in the business class cabin, and of either passing it on her to parents or being locked in a Chinese quarantine camp.
Judge Hudson told the court Liu’s offending was unsophisticated, and occurred in “unprecedented times” while she was
Header image: Christine Liu at a Senate hearing in 2022 (Parliament of Australia).
