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An American woman who took on the identity of a dead New Zealand girl claimed $31,400 in welfare benefits under her assumed name, a Wellington court was told today.
Laurelyn Smith, 45, pleaded guilty today to one charge of impersonation and one of forgery. A charge of using a false passport was withdrawn by police.
Sergeant Malcolm McClure told Wellington District Court Smith entered New Zealand with her two sons, aged six and 10, in June 1993 with an illegally obtained British passport.
Her husband had arrived three months earlier, having fraudulently obtained a New Zealand passport.
She obtained the birth certificate of a New Zealand infant, who had died soon after birth in 1962. Judge Bruce Davidson suppressed the names of the child and her parents.
She used the birth certificate to get an Inland Revenue number and to set up a bank account. Under the child's name she applied for an unemployment benefit and up to June 1 this year had received $30,408 in benefits, Mr McClure said.
Smith told police her former husband had provided her with the birth certificate when she arrived in New Zealand and she expressed remorse for using the child's name.
Lawyer Kevin Smith told the court Smith was making efforts to substantially repay the social welfare debt.
Judge Davidson remanded her to December 14 for sentence. He ordered reports on her eligibility for community detention, home detention and reparation.
He extended her electronic bail conditions to the sentence date, but warned her that was no indication about what sentence she would receive.
- NZPA
