Abuse of things like unemployment exploded the last few years, especially during the pandemic. This abuse isn’t just specific to the U.S. either it seems. A man in Australia has been busted for owning a Lamborghini despite collecting unemployment for the last five years.
Road & Track reports authorities in New South Wales Australia seized a Lamborghini Huracán and other luxury items from a 39-year-old unemployed man. They discovered he had been collecting unemployment benefits since 2019. With those benefits sole purpose being help while you look for another job, you can see the problem with owning a quarter million dollar supercar. The bust was the result of an investigation that started back in May according to Road & Track.
In May, the State Crime Command’s Organized Crime Squad detectives and the NSW Crime Commission launched an investigation into the unexplained wealth of individuals with alleged links to organized crime networks. Two months later, detectives executed a search warrant at the Lamborghini owner’s home in Parramatta, New South Wales — a suburb of Sydney — where they found the blue Lamborghini as well as the aforementioned watches and motorcycle, the latter clad in a Lambo-matching paint scheme.
The ties to the criminal underground should surprise no one. Authorities say all the items sized had a value of AU $500,000 or just over $335,000 in U.S. dollars. The man has now been charged with “dishonestly possess interfered with unique identifier” and is awaiting a court appearance in early October. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen someone use funds that weren’t theirs for ill-gotten cars. In late 2023 a man used a $180 million check fraud scheme to build an impressive 280 car collection that was ultimately auctioned off.