Australian nurse busted for faking grandfathers death to avoid airline fee

An Australian nurse faked the death of his grandfather, even going as far as to forge a death certificate to avoid paying an airline charge.The 29-year-old, whose identity was not revealed, had booked a seat on a Qantas Airways flight for his grandfather to attend his wedding in Queensland in April 2024, the Australian News Wire reported.The nurse had to cancel the ticket after his ailing relative was no longer allowed to fly because of a “cardiac event” that he had suffered months earlier in late 2023.When the younger man sought a refund for the plane fare, he learned the ticket was nonrefundable unless the passenger for the ticket had died.Rather than paying the nearly $1,000 fee, the nurse instead downloaded a “Life Extinct” form he found online and filled it out with fake details about his grandfather’s “death,” according to the outlet.He submitted the document to the airline and got his money back using made-up details, falsifying a unique record number and forging a doctor’s signature.The ruse didn’t last long as the airlines reported the fake document to police, who launched an investigation and eventually arrested the fraudster.He pleaded guilty in August 2024 to counts of forgery, uttering and fraud – dishonestly obtaining property from another.A court sentenced him to a 12-month good behavior bond and ordered the man to pay the airline in restitution.At the time, the nurse had also been fired from his job at a Queensland hospital, the wire service reported.Over two years after creating the scheme, the man is back answering for his crimes, this time in front of the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal.A Health Ombudsman had brought the case against the man, as the tribunal sought to remove his nurse’s registration.The man claimed he was recovering from an illness that left him with permanent disabilities.He also blamed his forgery on a “serious mental illness” and even shared a doctor’s ruling that found the disease may h...