A man serving six years' jail for armed and masked raids on people's homes in Hawke's Bay used a phone in prison to hack into the Human Rights Commission's system and make almost $300 worth of calls to mobile phones.
The rort was revealed when Rimutaka Prison inmate Anthony James Gerbes appeared in Upper Hutt District Court and pleaded guilty to one charge of incurring debt by deception.
He was sentenced to a further month in prison, on top of the six years imposed on him in Napier District Court in January last year, with a minimum term of 3 years. He had admitted the November 2010 aggravated burglaries of a house in Havelock North, another in Napier, and one in rural Pakowhai Rd, in which he and an accomplice awoke the elderly occupants and demanded vehicle keys and food.
A Hutt Valley suburban newspaper reported police prosecutor Sergeant Ian McDonald said in court last week Gerbes used the Human Rights Commission's free 0800 number to make 250 calls to a cellphone from April to July last year.
Costs for the 0800 collect calls and the outbound calls he generated to cellphones, mainly calls to his mother, totalled $296.41, while an investigation to identify the offender cost $1306.88.
Police said Gerbes found a way to manipulate the 0800 number's interactive voice response system and input the cellphone number for another party, in order to have his calls forwarded to that number.
Investigators linked Gerbes by his prisoner identification number, which he used to obtain access to the 0800 number, Mr McDonald said. Some were also traced back to another prisoner.
The free-calling 0800 number is provided for inmates to make genuine calls to the commission while they are in prison.