Community detention sentence in wage fraud case

A Lower Hutt man who made more than a dozen dishonest wage subsidy claims has been sentenced to four months community detention and 12 months’ supervision.

The man, who has name suppression until 12 February, was sentenced in Lower Hutt District Court on 15 January for the fraud committed between March and August 2020.

Five applications were approved and a total of $21,516 was deposited into his accounts.

He made eight other wage subsidy applications which were declined. The total value of these application attempts was $43,061.60.

He used his own name to make nine of the claims. The names of two other people, who had no knowledge of the applications, were used in the other claims.

The sentence imposed by Judge Mike Mika also covered separate charges brought by the Police. The sentence included special conditions.

Judge Mika ordered reparation of $21,316 to be paid.

A total of 30 people have been sentenced in wage subsidy cases, and another 58 people are still before the courts as part of MSD’s programme of work on wage subsidy fraud and integrity. Since the schemes started, more than $827.5 million* in wage subsidies has been repaid. For more information please see here.

*Figures at 18 December