Teacher defrauded Work and Income of $120,000

A Jaguar-driving schoolteacher defrauded the Department of Work and Income of more than $120,000 while her husband was earning more than $100,000 a year, a court was told.

Kim Averill Carlyle, 41, stole $121,111 from the Work and Income over a nine-year period from 1992. She was found guilty on nine counts of benefit fraud in February.

Judge Les Atkins at Palmerston North District Court yesterday sentenced Carlyle to 20 months imprisonment.

The court was told that at one time Carlyle drove the prestige car, with personalised licence plates, and was on the board of directors at Our Lady of Lourdes School in Palmerston North.

Her husband worked in and around Palmerston North as a builder earning, at one time, in excess of $100,000 a year.

His wages were deposited into Carlyle's account.

The marriage broke down after her husband discovered she had been forming relationships with other men over the internet.

Crown prosecutor Paul Murray pushed for three years' imprisonment but Judge Atkins said he believed that Carlyle had been in an abusive relationship with a man who was fulfilling the role of partner "only sporadically".

The pair had been married after a brief relationship, and Carlyle had had no idea of her husband's "extensive criminal history", he said.

He had been depositing money into her account and withdrawing it soon after to avoid his child support obligations.

As a result, Carlyle effectively considered herself a solo parent, and thus entitled to a benefit.

Judge Atkins said that while the sentence was "a little unusual" he was off the view that "this case is out of the ordinary".

He deferred sentence and granted bail while she was considered for home detention.

Carlyle, who has remained teaching while awaiting sentence, is still to hear a ruling from a teachers' board which will decide if she can ever teach again.

That ruling is expected to be made about June.

- NZPA