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A rest home owner has been jailed for five months and ordered to pay $12,500 after claiming more than $19,000 in government subsidies for five dead former residents.
Peter Balchin, 50, pleaded guilty in Oamaru District Court last year to 34 charges of obtaining by deception and has now been sentenced.
A co-owner of Oamaru's Southanjer Rest Home, Balchin falsified 34 "Proposed Payment Schedules" between April 2004 and September 2005, and received more than $19,000 in subsidies for five people who had already died.
Balchin also notified a false date of death for each of the five patients.
The Ministry of Health conducted an investigation through its business unit HealthPAC.
HealthPAC group manager Quentin Wilson said the sentence should serve as a warning to other rest home operators.
"In this case, the defendant abused his position of power, defrauding the Government of more than $19,000.
"People who choose to flout the law will be found and prosecuted accordingly."
- NZPA
