36 years to pay back WINZ after fraud

It will take 36 years for a woman to pay back nearly $39,000, which she defrauded from Work and Income over a decade.

Michelle Joseph, 39, will pay back the taxpayer once she is released from her eight-month prison sentence, which was imposed by Judge Grant Fraser in the Palmerston North District Court yesterday.

The Patea mother began her decade of deceit in 1998 when she applied for an accommodation supplement.

In 2008, the Ministry of Social Development discovered Joseph had not been living at the address she gave and did not have any accommodation costs.

She had also forged signatures and documents from landlords and, as a result, 18 charges of fraud were laid.

Joseph would pay back the Ministry of Social development at $20 a week until 2046.

"It's a long time for the taxpayer to recover the money you have taken from them," Judge Fraser said. He described her offending as "premeditated" and "cunning".

As Joseph left the court room she waved to her distressed daughter, aged 15.

- © Fairfax NZ News