A husband and wife have been spared jail time for their role in directing a childcare subsidy fraud syndicate.
The pair apologised to the country they defrauded before they were allowed to walk out of Sydney's Downing Centre District Court on Wednesday afternoon.
Judge Jane Culver sentenced Alee Farmann and Lubna Hashimy to imprisonment but granted the couple a three-year recognisance release order.
Farmann was to serve 33 months imprisonment and his wife was to serve three years for directing a fraud syndicate through company Red Roses Family Day Care Pty Ltd.
The couple instead will be required to maintain good behaviour for three years under community corrections supervision.
The daycare company was used to defraud the federal government's child care subsidy scheme from 2018 to 2019.
At least $89,000 worth of claims were made by Hashimy and $79,000 by Farmann.
"Not a single cent has been recovered," Judge Culver told the court.
Farmann, 53, was the sole owner of the company and had directed staff to bring and photograph children at care locations to legitimise company records.
The Georges Hall man instructed two educators on how to evade detection during periods of intensified government scrutiny, even going so far as to terminate then reinstate one staff member to avoid suspicion.
Hashimy, 44, instructed staff members on how to fill out timesheets and submissions to the Department of Education.
She also signed off on the fraudulent claims made to the department.
In one instance, one Red Roses educator made subsidy claims for regular morning sessions of care for Hashimy's children.
The children never attended the educator's home for care and were instead collected then delivered to school, the court heard.
Hashimy knew educators were not entitled to claim a subsidy for driving children but continued to repeatedly submit via Red Roses claims for sessions of care.
Judge Culver acknowledged full time custody for the couple would be difficult their mental and physical health.
Farmann fled to Australia in 1999 by boat following deteriorating conditions for Iraqi expats in Iran after the Gulf War.
He apologised to Australia in a letter to the court.
"I've let the principles of my country down," he wrote.
Ms Hashimy left Iraq due to her mother being of Iranian background, moving to Sydney in 2006 on a partner visa.
"I apologise to the Australian people. This is a shameful event in my life that will stain my heart," Hashimy wrote in a letter to the court.
The judge also acknowledged imprisonment would challenge caretaking of their children.
The couple's daughter, 23, wrote a letter to the court, outlining the impact media reports of the court proceedings had on her two younger siblings.
"We began to feel racially attacked," the daughter wrote.
"As for my younger brother, boys from his school began to recognise his name ... and to harass him about it."
Judge Culver agreed imprisonment was the only appropriate sentence, but it did not necessarily have to be conducted in full custody.
Imprisonment within the community would be more suitable for the offences, she said.
