Counsellor fined for fraudulent claims

BY LYN HUMPHREYS

A nationally respected sexual abuse counsellor had suffered an extreme fall from grace when she falsified a raft of ACC claims, the New Plymouth District Court heard yesterday.

However, Lorraine Jans, 59, was given the benefit of her years of work at the coalface with traumatised child victims of sexual abuse and walked away with a fine.

In sentencing, Judge Allan Roberts ordered Jans to pay $1500 in fines and $130 in court costs.

The maximum penalty for using a document is a prison sentence of seven years.

Susan Hughes, QC, had earlier asked the court to discharge her client without conviction.

This was rejected by Judge Allan Roberts because, he said, of the serious breach of trust spread over eight months.

Ms Hughes said her client, who had pleaded guilty in April to fraudulently claiming for 104 consultations worth $8154.64, accepted the offending had been a gross breach of trust.

However Jans had been suffering "burnout" and had been too proud to ask for help, Ms Hughes said.

"But for a life spent in the corrosive environment of counselling child sexual abuse victims, Mrs Jans would not be before the court," Ms Hughes said.

"This offending was a cry for help," she said.

As a result of the offending she was unable to get a job and was now surviving on a sickness benefit, Ms Hughes said.

Crown prosecutor James Gurnick said the offending was serious. The ACC system relied on the honesty of those who wrote out the invoices, he said.

There had been a high level of premeditation given the number of false claims and length of offending, Mr Gurnick said.

Judge Roberts said Jans had been engaged in a difficult profession, literally working at the coalface dealing with lives turned upside down because of the trauma they had experienced. In rendering them assistance as a counsellor, she was beyond reproach.

There were very many people who owed her a debt of gratitude. She had made full restitution and he accepted that her health had deteriorated over time.

The offending involved 22 ACC invoices incorporating 104 consultations.

"Your fall from grace is truly a significant one," the judge said.

In their victim impact statement, Safer Centre told of how it understandably suffered a sense of betrayal and had been forced to go into damage control.

Safer Centre estimated it had carried out about 250 hours of pro bono counselling as a result.

Jans was in a position of trust and the ACC system relied on the integrity of professionals, the judge said.

A court must not discharge a defendant unless satisfied that the consequences would be out of all proportion to the gravity of the offence.

"I am not prepared to discharge without conviction."

Jans was entitled to credit for pleading guilty immediately, reinstating the money owed and for leading nothing other than a contributing lifestyle in a difficult field.

Trust chairman Gordon Brown, in a statement released on behalf of the Safer Centre trustees and staff, said yesterday Jans had been untruthful as to why she was dismissed both to the media and to former colleagues.

In so doing the centre's reputation had been tarnished, leaving them exposed and vulnerable.

"We were unable to protect ourselves because we acted ethically by refusing to comment on an employment issue."

The agency had not faced a financial crisis for many years but Jans had wrongly said that was her reason for falsifying the claims.

"Staff and trust members have been totally betrayed by Ms Jans' actions, not least as this was a second chance for Ms Jans to prove her honesty to the centre."

Her clients had been revictimised, left asking "who can I trust now?"

"Valuable counselling time has been taken up reassuring clients that the centre is in no danger of closing due to a financial crisis and that their treatment won't be affected."

ACC's general manager of claims management Denise Cosgrove said yesterday it was glad that the money, that had been fraudulently claimed, could now be used where it was most needed – supporting and rehabilitating injured New Zealanders.

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