The way I see it, all of this depends on whether or not the invoice was issued to the other party (a demand for payment was made)
before the invoice was submitted as evidence to NCAT.
If the invoice was issued, then yes, a demand for payment has been made and this would consitute attempted fraud under s192E of the Crimes Act.
If the invoice wasn't issued, then no demand for money was made and as such, it can't consitute fraud.
We then go to NCAT and the following happens:
1. The invoice is submitted as evidence.
2. The invoice is found to be false.
3. The applicable offence is s71 of the NCAT Act (False or misleading statements) and NOT s192E of the Crimes Act (Fraud), because the actual conduct in question occurred during an NCAT proceeding, which is governed by the NCAT Act.
Civil and Administrative Tribunal Act
71 False or misleading statements
A person must not, in any proceedings or application to the Tribunal, provide any information, or make any statement, to the Tribunal knowing that the information or statement is false or misleading in a material respect.
Maximum penalty — 50 penalty units or imprisonment for 12 months, or both.
In this case, you can condense that down to:
A person must not provide any information to the Tribunal knowing that the information is false or misleading in a material respect.
So like I said, it all comes down to whether or not the invoice was issued to the other party before it was submitted as evidence.
If it was issued, then as far as the Police are concerned, they would be unlikely to take action over $400. This could change if there was an admission of tampering during the NCAT hearing, because NCAT hearings are usually recorded.
If it wasn't issued, then as far as the Police are concerned, it's a civil matter and they won't get involved. In this case, the matter will be dealt with when NCAT makes it's final decisions in relation to the matter before it. It may take action under s71, but that is highly unlikely. Either way, at that point, the matter will have been dealt with.