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A New Zealand woman who obtained more than $300,000 from benefit fraud committed over two decades in Australia was yesterday jailed by a Sydney court.
Jessica Rose Anderson, 50, borrowed a friend's name to obtain a false passport to travel to Australia in the 1980s and claimed a range of benefits from 1984 until December last year, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.
The mother of eight, who pleaded guilty to 19 charges, received A$304,000 ($324,000) over about 20 years, said Judge Richard Cogswell in the Downing Centre District Court.
Her fraud was discovered during a joint Australian-New Zealand police operation sparked by concern over false passports issued to New Zealand citizens, it was reported.
Judge Cogswell took into account evidence that Anderson had suffered a life of violence and sexual abuse, was pack-raped at 17 - from which she gave birth to a son - and had endured a long, abusive relationship with a man, Peter, who had since left her.
Anderson took the identity of Tuatora Keno to get the false passport because she was on probation in New Zealand when Peter left for Australia in 1983.
The court heard that she had been the family breadwinner, and Peter had wasted money on gambling and drinking.
Anderson had left Peter and gone into refuges, but he had found her and dragged her back, the paper said. Other times she went back to him out of fear.
He had since returned to New Zealand and was in another relationship. Anderson was afraid that she would be deported and scared to be in the same country as him.
The judge took into account Anderson's criminal history and prison sentences in New Zealand and Australia, mainly for dishonesty offences.
She was also convicted of making a false statement in relation to a foreign travel document. She was sentenced to five years in prison but will serve three.
