A Nepalese immigrant who indecently assaulted a teenage girl in the NSW town of Albury has been banned from providing NDIS services for two years.
Chhabi Lal Acharya, 39, was given a banning order on September 28, more than eight years after the sex attack, and three years after he was convicted and sentenced to a six-month community corrections order.
The National Disability Insurance Scheme Quality and Safeguards Commissions said a “delegate had regard to Chhabi Lal Acharya’s criminal history” in making the banning order.
Acharya, who came to Australia in 2011, met his victim’s family through the Nepalese community, and assaulted her after giving her a lift to the Gardens Medical Group on Wodonga Place, Albury, for a doctor’s appointment in February 2018, The Border Mail reported.
While driving her home Acharya asked her about her “sexual activities” and if she was a virgin, asked her to kiss him, and then placed his hand on her bare right thigh.
The victim told him to remove his hand and climbed into the back seat. She reported him to police three years later, and Acharya was arrested and charged.
In August 2022 Acharya pleaded guilty to a single charge of committing an assault with an act of indecency after police dropped a charge of “carry out a sexual assault with another without consent” and two charges of “indecent assault of a person under 16 years of age”.
The NDIS ban prohibits Acharya from providing, being involved in, or assisting in the provision, to any NDIS participant, of any supports and/or services under a participant’s plan and which involves unsupervised contact with participants, whether in a participant’s home or elsewhere, and/or involves him accessing or receiving a NDIS participant’s personal or financial information.
The order operates across all states and territories and expires on September 30, 2028.
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