KEY POINTS:
Work and Income has conceded a mistake was made when a manager allowed a transvestite who allegedly vandalised a public telephone to escape from a security guard at an Auckland service centre.
A security guard was trying to apprehend the transvestite at the Hunters Corner site but was asked to wait outside by Work and Income staff to avoid making a scene.
After waiting 15 minutes, the guard was told the transvestite had been allowed to leave by the backdoor.
The Hunters Corner location is notorious for street prostitution and local business leaders, who are trying to rehabilitate the shopping centre's reputation, are angry at what transpired involving the transvestite.
Hunters Corner Town Centre Society chairman John McCracken said the July 30 incident had sounded so bizarre he arranged to meet the Work and Income manager, Pamela Ferguson, to discuss it.
"She said yes, she let the person out," Mr McCracken, who is a Papatoetoe Council candidate, said.
"She asked the person if they had done the damage. They said no, so she opened the back door and let them go. She hadn't wanted a scene which might disrupt or affect their clients in the reception area."
When contacted by the Herald, Ms Ferguson said she had no comment on the matter and hung up.
Mr McCracken still could not believe Ms Ferguson had allowed the alleged vandal to escape.
"We are trying hard at Hunters Corner. We have had a prostitution problem for some time and the local firms have been trying to up the quality of their businesses and shops. To be let down like this by a Government department is totally unacceptable."
National MP Judith Collins raised the incident in Parliament yesterday. "In many ways I hope the information is incorrect," Mrs Collins told the Herald.
"Because if it is true then we have the bizarre situation of a government department going out of its way to stop law-abiding people from apprehending someone who, on the face of it, has just committed an offence."
