Marleen Charan: Fake lawyer siphoned thousands from victims, County Court told

A single mother pretended to be a lawyer and a migration agent in order to steal nearly $80,000 from “vulnerable” victims wanting to live and work in Australia, a Victorian court has been told.

Marleen Charan, 48, was arrested in 2019 at Melbourne airport preparing to board a plane to India before she was nabbed by Victoria Police and charged. Charan billed clients as much as $30,000 before cutting off all contact, the Victorian County Court was told on Friday.

Judge Duncan Allen was scathing of Charan, who pleaded guilty to obtaining financial benefit and property by deception, saying the victims were vulnerable members of society who trusted her.

The court was told Charan would meet clients at her Melbourne Bourke St office, where she based her migration business, Australian Immigration Legal Support Centre and displayed fake legal practising certificates.

She would ask for a deposit of $300 from clients before progressing to $30,000 “payment plans” that would result in visas allowing them to live and work in Australia.

The offending occurred from 2015-2017 and would invariably end in Charan, who at times used alias’ such as “Sonya”, screening the calls from desperate clients.

The court was told in one of the cases a woman responded to an advertisement Charan had put on Gumtree in June 2016 in which she claimed to be an immigration agent.

At a subsequent meeting between the pair, Charan told the woman that as a lawyer and a migration agent, she could help her with a migration case and sponsorship visa.

In an email to the woman after the meeting, Charan asked her to provide her resume, cover letter, English score, qualifications and three employment references – paving the way for a $35,000 payment plan to be entered into between the pair.

From August 2016 to May 2017, the woman paid Charan just under $25,000 in instalments in the belief that Charan was lodging paperwork with the Department of Immigration – something Charan never did.

From January to March 2017, the woman repeatedly tried to contact Charan in order to be updated on the status of her visa application, only to find her number had been blocked.

In May, Charan told the woman that she would “need to find her own migration agent” and would only provide administrative support.

Following her arrest in 2019, Charan denied she had acted as a migration agent and told police that “part of my nature is to help people and reach out”.

The court was told Charan had not repaid any of the money.

Defence barrister Luke Howson said Charan “was under tremendous expectation from her family,” whom he described as highly successful.

Judge Allen said he would have Charan assessed for a community corrections order before he returned to sentence her on October 4.