A man who used a doctored drivers licence and 24 different identities to try defraud the COVID-19 Wage Subsidy and Leave Support schemes has been jailed, the Ministry of Social Development said.
Casey John Burtt Smith, a 29-year-old Aucklander from Long Bay, was sentenced to 27 months and two weeks imprisonment in the Manukau District Court on December 4.
He pleaded guilty to two charges of using forged documents and three charges of dishonestly taking or using documents.
Smith made a total of 43 applications for wage subsidy and leave support payments between April 2020 to April 2022.
If all had been approved, they would have been worth over $200,000; but only five ended up going through, worth a total of $26,946.80.
Three of the successful applications were in his own name and two used other people's identities.
The latter two payments were made to bank accounts Smith set up using a drivers licence that had been stolen along with a wallet in early 2020.
Smith had doctored the licence to have his own photo.
Judge Mina Wharepouri, who presided over Smith's hearing, said the premeditation, planning, high breach of trust, and the sum of funds obtained and applied for were all aggravating factors in his offending.
On top of the jail time, Smith has been ordered to pay $2000 in reparations, to be distributed to the victims to whom he caused emotional harm.
Thirty-nine people have so far been brought before the courts for misuse of the wage subsidy.
