KEY POINTS:
A Te Puke woman who received more than $119,000 in benefits she was not entitled to would take 76 years to refund the money at her present rate of payment, Tauranga District Court was told today.
"Obviously, that is not going to happen," Judge Peter Rollo told Kathryn Mary Maraku, 46, who is repaying $30 a week.
What she had obtained dishonestly from the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) over eight years was a considerable amount of money, he said - "well beyond what most people could accumulate in a lifetime."
The judge jailed Maraku for two years three months on 11 fraud charges.
MSD prosecutor Sheryl Manning said the accused, who pleaded guilty, had applied successfully for the Domestic Purposes Benefit (DPB) in October 1996.
Three months later she was living in a relationship with a man in the nature of marriage but failed to advise the ministry.
Up until last year she had repeatedly completed applications to review her entitlement to a benefit, each time stating she was not in a live-in relationship.
When first interviewed almost a year ago, Maraku denied living with a partner while receiving the DPB and accommodation supplements totalling $119,119.
Lawyer Paul Devoy said his client accepted that her "on and off" relationship started in 1997. The couple had a 10-year-old child together.
Maraku, who had no previous convictions, was not "coldly calculating," he said.
"She got onto a merry-go-round and couldn't get off it."
To some extent, she saw the fraud as a victimless crime, said Mr Devoy.
"But it is not really. There are many victims, who are the taxpayers."
He said Maraku now realised that.
- NZPA
