Acupuncturist forged $239,000 of ACC claims, conviction earns home detention

Claims were submitted for acupuncture work not carried out. Photo / supplied

An acupuncturist who forged $239,000 of treatments in false Accident Compensation Corporation claims has been sentenced to home detention.

Cheng-Yin Wu appeared in the Auckland District Court for sentencing, after being convicted of the forgeries.

He had pleaded guilty to two charges: forgery carrying a maximum 10-year prison sentence and dishonest use of a document carrying a maximum seven-year sentence.

He was a registered acupuncture treatment provider based in Auckland but over 22 months from 2017 to 2019, he submitted electronic payment forms for treatments that had not been carried out at his clinic totalling $239,579.

That amount was paid out by ACC for non-existent treatments. It has now been repaid after his parents loaned him the money to be able to return the sums.

"You were discovered by the Accident Compensation Corporation when they noticed your claim forms were somewhat higher than your peers," Judge Brooke Gibson said.

"They have a computer programme which enabled them to analyse the data for ACC providers which established that you were outside of the range for billings and so they commenced an investigation and found, for instance, you had been claiming 34 hours of billings in a single day, you had been double billing, that you had high costs per claim and high average treatments per claim," the judge said.

When ACC sought a meeting to talk about the situation, he delayed that so he could create false clinical notes to try to support the false billings.

"You said that you did that to cover business expenses of your own practice and your personal costs but it became apparent that what you were using the monies for was effectively lifestyle matters as you had entered into a relationship with a woman and substantial amounts of money were apparently spent on her," Judge Gibson wrote in sentencing.

The man, aged about 30, had not appeared in court before and was a first offender, no longer practising as an acupuncturist.

Instead, he is now working as an apprentice carpenter and doing that at various work sites around the Waikato.

In his defence, the man's counsel said reparation had been paid.

The judge said the Accident Compensation Corporation system operates on the basis that people will comply with their obligations and will be honest.

It is not difficult to get significant amounts of money from the ACC in the way he did because of the way in which the system operates.

"Ultimately offenders will be caught but not before large sums have been able to be extracted from the ACC because the system relies on the honesty of the persons providing services for which they are reimbursed. Not only that, there are many acupuncturists and other people who ACC funds and of course, ACC and the Crown are interested in ensuring that people comply with their obligations," Judge Gibson wrote.

Taking the money was in effect taking it from the taxpayer.

Although it had been paid back and he had pleaded guilty, the offending was serious.

"The psychological report notes your background, it says your parents had high expectations of you and you were raised in an era when physical disciplining was common both at school and at home. That would be the same for most people who are middle-aged or older in New Zealand," Judge Gibson said.

There was nothing unique in that and remorse really was more directed to the embarrassment he felt in having to advise his parents what he had done and the realisation of the financial burden placed on them.

Because he was a first offender "and by a very thin margin" the judge decided to allow a sentence of 12 months' home detention.