A 28-year-old Australian woman whose family is Maltese has pleaded guilty in a Sydney court to fraud charges after posing as a schoolgirl.
Samantha Azzopardi, described in Australian media as a serial con artist known to have used more than 40 aliases, duped authorities in Ireland and Canada, in 2013 and 2014 into thinking she was a child sex abuse victim held by human traffickers.
In her latest case, she posed as a 13-year old schoolgirl under the name Harper Hart and be placed in foster care.
READ: Samantha Azzopardi is 'mystery woman' found in Ireland
She was accused of defrauded the Department of Families and Community Services through the financing of medication.
She also obtained an iPad, Opal cards and a mobile phone from the Burdekin Association, a northern Sydney not-for-profit organisation.
While in Sydney, Azzopardi recycled her previous claims of being a victim of sexual abuse and human trafficking and even accessed counselling services from the Victims of Crime Assistance League.
But she was found out when the Families Department became suspicious and alerted the police.