WINZ staffer admits $102,000 fraud

A Work and Income case manager faces jail after inventing a client and collecting more than $100,000 in benefits and grants.

It took more than five years for the department's checks to catch up with Nguha Benjamin Moses, but by then the money totalling $102,475 was gone through gambling on poker machines.

Moses, 27, appeared in Christchurch District Court today and pleaded guilty to one charge of forgery and seven of fraudulently using a document.

He carried out the fraud during most of his eight-year career with Work and Income in Christchurch. That career ended in March when the fraud was discovered, in spite of Moses' last minute attempts to cover his tracks.

In January 2001, Moses received a birth certificate at the office and he removed the details and replaced them with the made-up name Manuel Jakes. He used those details to get an IRD number and open a bank account.

The fictitious Jakes -- a "client" of Moses the case manager -- then had no trouble getting support from Work and Income.

He was granted the unemployment benefit and accommodation supplement, and a sickness benefit which was later transferred to an invalid's benefit.

He got a training incentive allowance to attend a New Zealand College of Education electronics and computer technology course. The allowance paid for his study costs, a laptop computer, books, and stationery.

Special needs grants totalling $1000 to buy food, a household appliance, and for travel to see a specialist medical consultant, were paid into Jakes' bank account.

Then two months ago, things went wrong for Moses. Caseloads were switched at the WINZ office in the Christchurch suburb of Papanui and Jakes' file went to another case manager.

Police prosecutor Sergeant Brent Register said: "Moses typed a letter to the new case manager, signing the letter 'Manuel Jakes'. He advised that he would not require the benefit anymore as he was living overseas."

WINZ became suspicious. When staff looked at the file, they found a notation by Moses saying that Manuel Jakes was part of the New Zealand Police Protection Scheme.

Staff also noticed that the return address for documentation relating to Jakes was Moses' work address.

Moses admitted making up the person and the name, altering the birth certificate, and gambling the money.

At the request of defence counsel Greg Trainor, Judge Michael Crosbie today remanded Moses on bail to a Crown sentencing session on July 14. He called for probation and reparation reports.

Mr Trainor told the court the two-month delay would allow Moses to realise his share of the equity in the family home to pay some of the reparations. His wife was also expecting a baby next month, but Moses accepted a prison sentence was probable.

Judge Crosbie told Moses: "This was a fraud of a large amount committed by you as an employee of a government department."

The judge said a prison sentence was inevitable, but he was delaying sentencing for two months in the expectation that a substantial payment towards reparation could be made.

- NZPA