A married couple who worked at the South Australian health department sent themselves thousands of death threats in an elaborate ploy that scored them free holidays, a court has heard.
But they were thwarted by police who fought cunning with cunning, breaking into the pair's home to mark paper and envelopes with "invisible ink".
Tabitha Lean and Simon Peisley are each charged with 47 counts of deception and on Wednesday, they faced the opening of their trial in the SA District Court.
They mailed crude letters and bloodstained parcels to their home and office so they could take indefinite time off work and interstate trips at their employer's expense, prosectors allege.
They faked a total of 80,000 threats - comprising letters, parcels and phone calls, and vandalising their own home - over a two-year period, the court heard.