A person shall be jailed for nearly 4 years after he tried to assert nearly $400,000 of his late girlfriend’s superannuation simply days after she died in surgical procedure.
Travis Paul Barnard, 32, was sentenced within the Perth District Court docket on Friday after being discovered responsible by a jury in March of logging into Kim Heptinstall’s tremendous account on her cell phone and altering the beneficiary nomination to his particulars.
He tried to entry as much as $400,000 in superannuation and life insurance coverage advantages.
The Australian Federal Police (AFP) charged Barnard in July 2020 after investigating claims the superannuation account had been accessed within the hours after Ms Heptinstall, 32, died throughout gastric sleeve surgical procedure in 2019.
Barnard was sentenced to 3 years and 10 months in jail which was backdated to March 25, 2024, with a non-parole interval of 1 yr and 11 months.
Travis Barnard (pictured) has been sentenced to nearly 4 years in jail for fraudulently attempting to assert nearly $400,000 of his lifeless girlfriend’s superannuation after her sudden loss of life
The AFP charged Barnard in July 2020 after investigating claims the superannuation account had been accessed within the hours after Ms Heptinstall, 32, died throughout gastric sleeve surgical procedure in 2019 (his arrest is pictured)
Barnard tried to hide the offences by deleting Ms Heptinstall’s banking and superannuation apps and signing out of her e mail tackle, the court docket heard.
He then handed the telephone over to her household.
Ms Heptinstall’s household reported considerations about her monetary affairs after Barnard tried to get a duplicate of her loss of life certificates.
Barnard, who was identified with borderline character dysfunction (BPD) in 2015, initially denied committing the offences.
He later claimed the offending had been the work of ‘the opposite Travis’.
District Court docket Choose David MacLean refused to simply accept his ‘baseless’ declare, saying it was like attempting to carry a ‘phantom’ accountable.
Kim Heptinstall (pictured) died all of the sudden from issues throughout surgical procedure in 2019
Exterior court docket, Ms Heptinstall’s brother Ben (pictured) stated his household had been by ‘hell’
Choose MacLean stated Barnard had failed to point out any regret for his crimes or take duty for the ‘cold-hearted’ breach of belief.
He stated there was a excessive danger Barnard would offend once more and that the one acceptable punishment was jail time, efficient instantly.
Exterior court docket, Ms Heptinstall’s brother Ben stated his household had been by ‘hell’.
‘It is a reduction that it is lastly come to mild, as a result of we have needed to stay with the lies for the final 5 years,’ he stated.
‘For the decide to lastly acknowledge and settle for what actually occurred in these hours and days after my sister’s passing is an enormous reduction for principally what we have been preventing for, for the final 5 years.’
