Woman faces 40 charges related to fraud and identity theft

Jeanette Ford. Photo / Herald on Sunday

A woman living in a house owned by a senior police officer is facing allegations of multiple identity theft and widespread fraud.

Jeanette Geraldine Ford faces more than 40 charges related to the fraudulent use of Work and Income documents, driving licences and birth certificates to gain a pecuniary advantage, forging tenancy agreements and claiming benefits she was not entitled to.

The unemployed 46-year-old, who lives in the upmarket Auckland suburb of St Heliers, allegedly used six aliases - some stolen from Kiwis living overseas - to apply for sickness and domestic purposes benefits, accommodation supplements and other payouts between 1996 and this year.

The Ministry of Social Development refused to say how much Ford had been paid over the 13-year span of her alleged offending in Auckland and Hamilton.

She is alleged to have used her name and six others: Jeanette Geraldine Hartley, Jenette Christina Ford, Kathleen Eddington, Kim Sharee Watt, Virginia Jane Morrison and Bridgette Bewick.

The Herald on Sunday has learned her alleged offending was uncovered during ministry "information mining" - the process of extracting hidden patterns from data.

The link between the aliases is understood to have been picked up due to improvements in technology.

Once the link was made, the ministry worked with police and other agencies, including the Department of Internal Affairs and New Zealand Transport Agency, to gather the evidence that led to Ford's arrest.

"It is a unique case involving deliberate deception to steal and create identities for gain," said the ministry's head of integrity services, Hilary Reynolds.

She would not comment further because the matter was before the courts.

Ford appeared before the Auckland District Court on Tuesday, did not enter a plea and was remanded on bail until later this month.

The Herald on Sunday approached her for comment at her home this week.

The two-storey cream brick townhouse is among a block of four. From the street it looks spacious and has a balcony which had large potted plants, and a small garden area out the front.

The blinds and curtains were closed and it took several minutes for Ford to answer the door. She appeared looking like she had just woken up, dressed in a blue bathrobe with unkempt hair.

She said she was not Jeanette Ford and did not know her.

"Why would you think she lived here?" she asked.

However after being told the reason for the visit she asked for the reporter's contact details "to pass on to her".

She did not contact the Herald on Sunday after that visit and did not answer the door on a subsequent visit or respond to a letter requesting an interview.

A vehicle parked in the driveway was registered to Kathleen Eddington - one of Ford's aliases.

The house is owned by a senior police officer who said she knew her tenant as Kathleen Eddington but was unaware of the charges.

She sounded shocked by the allegations but did not want to comment further.

Records show Ford previously lived in Mission Bay. Addresses for her aliases include flashy Herne Bay and post office boxes in Newmarket and St Heliers.

The tenancy agreements she allegedly forged were for properties in Grey Lynn, Mission Bay and Onehunga.

Ford is accused of using many official documents during her alleged offending, including three birth certificates and four driving licences.

She is also accused of claiming six benefits in the name of Jenette Christina Ford, without disclosing she was already receiving a benefit in the name of Jeanette Geraldine Hartley.

People on the domestic purposes benefit receive $316.22 a week. Sickness beneficiaries and those eligible for an accommodation supplement can receive up to $225 a week, depending on their marital status and number of children.

A ministry spokeswoman said this week that identity crime related to benefit fraud was "relatively rare".

Reynolds said the ministry took all types of fraud "very seriously".

"Anyone caught defrauding the system will face action. In the last financial year 735 people were prosecuted for benefit fraud, representing $14.2 million," she said.

"Of these, 14 cases involved multiple identities - mainly people using other names that they are known by - to claim more than one benefit."

Reynolds said in the same period, more than 22 million records were checked across six other government agencies, uncovering $20m of fraud.

- HERALD ON SUNDAY