KEY POINTS:
It will take a fraudster 54 years to square the ledger if she continues repaying Social Welfare at the current level of $20 a week.
Sonia Louise McCann, 25, of Murchison in the Tasman district, was sentenced in Greymouth District Court yesterday to seven months' home detention to be served at Greymouth after she admitted seven charges of defrauding the department of $54,000 during the period 2002-07.
Lawyer Richard Bodle said McCann had not used the money lavishly. An ill child had been a heavy drain on the finances and her partner was little help, leaving her to get by as best she could while spending most of his money.
Judge David Holderness said the large sum, lengthy period of offending, and premeditation were significant aggravating features.
Imprisonment was inevitable, but as McCann was a first offender and had a home she could go to at Greymouth (with home detention not available in Murchison), he said she could serve the sentence in the community.
- NZPA
