Hawke's Bay mother got $81k worth of ACC claims for kids not in her care

Hastings mother Kellie Hoy has admitted making ACC claims totalling more than $81,000 for children who were not in her care. Photo/File.

A Hawke's Bay mother has admitted making ACC claims totalling more than $81,000 for children who were not in her custody.

Hastings woman Kellie Louisa Mary Hoy, 34, lodged a claim with ACC after injuring her knees playing roller derby on October 5, 2014.

Hoy said she was unable to complete home and community tasks, which included the fulltime care of her three children.

After ACC accepted the claim, she started receiving two hours of Home and Community Support Services per week, which was raised to 61 hours per week during school holiday periods and 48.5 hours per week during school term in December that year.

Between January 2015 and March 2016 Hoy presented 14 weekly forms to ACC, signed by her and her carer to show the support services she had received.

Throughout discussions with ACC representatives she made numerous comments about the custody, care, needs and schooling of her two sons, whom she said resided with her and attended a Hastings primary school.

She even went as far as referring to the difficulties presented by one of her sons in the context of her needing assistance for the care of her children.

However when ACC investigated Hoy in 2016 it discovered that she did not have parental custody of her two youngest children, who had been living with their respective fathers since before her roller derby accident in 2014.

Both of the boys' fathers confirmed they had court-ordered parental custody orders for their sons, who were enrolled in Taranaki schools and had never attended schools in Hastings.

The children had visited their mother at her home during the Christmas school holiday period in 2014/2015, during which Hoy arranged for her two "needs-based" assessments.

She organised her children to be present at the assessments to support the misrepresentation that she had ongoing parental custody of them.

In its investigation ACC also discovered that Hoy had forged the signature of her carer listed on the forms.

During this time ACC had paid a total $81,928.43 of Home Community Support Services.

Hoy personally received $16,631.83 of this and a total $65,296.60 was paid to Healthcare New Zealand to carry out services at Hoy's house.

ACC is seeking the full amount of $81,928.43 from Hoy.

She appeared in the Hastings District Court this morning and pleaded guilty to three representative charges of obtaining by deception, dishonestly using a document and using forged documents.

Using forged documents carries a maximum penalty of 10 years' imprisonment while the other charges carry maximum penalties of seven years' imprisonment.

She was remanded on bail to reappear for sentencing on April 27.