$3.48m welfare fraud wants ministry's help

One of New Zealand's biggest frauds says he wants to go straight - with help from the government ministry he ripped off.

Wayne Thomas Patterson (48) used 123 different identities between 2003 and 2006 to defraud the Ministry of Social Development of $3.48 million in welfare benefits.

In October he was sentenced to an eight-year jail term, with a minimum non-parole period of five years.

He is appealing his sentence, but papers released yesterday by the ministry, under the Official Information Act, showed a remorseful Patterson had sought the ministry's help to turn around his life of crime.

They also showed the profit from Patterson's investments had almost earned the Government $1 million - a jump of $400,000 since he was sentenced.

In response to a letter from ministry chief executive Peter Hughes, seeking to ensure Patterson understood his offending and offering to help find him a legal job after prison, the fraudster said he had been studying for that purpose and would appreciate help.

‘‘Hopefully this will enhance my employment prospects upon my release,'' he said in a neatly handwritten letter.

‘‘My main concern is that due to my past convictions it may be difficult to find an employer willing to take me on.

‘‘I appreciate your offer of help in finding employment and would welcome any help you may be able to provide.''

Mr Hughes, who yesterday briefed a parliamentary committee on the audacious identity fraud, said he welcomed Patterson's commitment, but it was hard to take it at face value, given a long criminal career.

He said the ministry was confident there were no similar large-scale frauds occurring and had spent about $1 million on measures to make sure they could not happen again.

The measures included manually checking all applications against the births register, requiring a higher level of photo ID and better training for frontline staff.

Ministry deputy chief executive Doug Craig also revealed Kiwibank had first become suspicious of Patterson's numerous accounts under false names when it realised several accounts were being regularly accessed from a single Internet address.

It was revealed in October the bank had notified the ministry of the suspicious transactions under the Financial Transactions Reporting Act sparking an intensive month-long 24-hour a day investigation that culminated in Patterson's arrest.

The papers released yesterday also showed Patterson's investments had made even more money for the Government while the ministry went through the legal process to recover the stolen funds.

At sentencing, the funds he stole had grown from $3.48 million to $3.9 million.

By January they had grown to $4.33 million - due largely to gold's value lifting. Patterson had about $900,000 in gold bullion, which had since leapt in value to about $1.2 million. His other NZ assets rose by $81,000 and investments in Austria and Switzerland rose by $52,000.

The papers showed the Austrians and Swiss resisted the repatriation of funds, but would likely do so once Patterson's appeals had been exhausted.

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