Fraudster mum given 80 years to pay it back

Abigail Hartevelt | 22nd July 2010

A Rotorua mother who ripped off Work and Income will spend the next 80 years paying back more than $12,000 if she continues to pay it back at the current rate of $3 a week.

Sensible Sentencing Trust Rotorua spokesman Peter Bentley has described the payment rate as a "joke".

"It's my money they are trying to get back and they [Work and Income] don't seem to put any value on taxpayers' money," Mr Bentley told The Daily Post  after the recent sentencing of 40-year-old Hinekura Hohaia.

Hohaia appeared in the Rotorua District Court for sentencing after previously pleading guilty to seven benefit fraud-related charges.

Judge Chris McGuire sentenced Hohaia to three months' community detention and 200 hours' community work.

According to the Ministry of Social Development's summary of facts, Hohaia was working at two local schools over a six-year-old period during which time she also received $12,559 in domestic purposes benefit payments to which she was not entitled.

She told the ministry she had not told them she was working as she needed to  help her children financially.

Lawyer Brendan Mills, who appeared on behalf of the ministry, told the court Hohaia had been paying the money back at $11 a week but that had been reduced to $3 otherwise the ministry could be accused of creating hardship for Hohaia.

Mr Bentley told The Daily Post a repayment schedule of $3 a week was hardly a penalty and said the ministry was treating taxpayers' dollars with disregard.

In the pre-sentence report, a sentence of community detention and community work was recommended and initially Judge McGuire questioned whether both were needed.

Judge McGuire said until the introduction of community detention, he would have thought a large amount of community work could have been enough.

However, Mr Mills said the six-year duration of offending was a factor which needed to be considered.

Hohaia's lawyer, Olivia Brittain argued a sentence of community work could be imposed without the need to also impose community detention. She said the duration of the offending was only one factor and Hohaia was genuine about turning her life around.

This case followed another case in recent daysinvolving a Rotorua woman who was sentenced in the Rotorua District Court for almost $9000 worth of benefit fraud and she was paying back the money at $5 a week.

The ministry's integrity services general manager, Justine Auton, told The Daily Post that in all cases the ministry first
sought full repayment of any outstanding debt but carefully considered a person's ability to repay without going into extreme hardship.

"We regularly review repayment levels based on what the person can afford to pay."

If a person returned to work or their income increased for other reasons repayment levels were increased.

Currently, 94 per cent of the ministry debt was being repaid by people who were still on a benefit.

Of those people who were no longer on a benefit, 78 per cent were repaying their debt at an average of $25.74 per week.

People currently on a benefit were repaying their debt at an average of $14.61 per week.