A Kaitaia woman who continued claiming unemployment benefit worth more than $41,000 while she was in paid employment has been sentenced to six months' home detention.
Betsy Lee Anne Tatana, 44, appeared before Judge Greg Davis in the Kaitaia District Court yesterday after earlier admitting charges of obtaining by deception and dishonestly using a document.
The court heard that Tatana and her partner had been granted the benefit, and an accommodation supplement, in April 1986. It was cancelled in December 2010 when she failed to reapply.
As a result of information-matching with Inland Revenue it was found that Tatana had been employed since July 2006, and that she had been under-declaring her income.
The court heard that in July 2008 she told the Ministry of Social Development that her weekly gross income had reduced to $60, but that week she actually received $360.