Ambulance fraud brings prison term

By PAUL YANDALL

HAMILTON - The operator of a Waikato ambulance service has been sent to prison after being found guilty of theft and fraud.

Geoffrey Martin Smith, aged 47, of Te Kauwhata, was sentenced in the Hamilton District Court yesterday to nine months in prison after being convicted on six charges of theft and two of fraud.

His wife, Barbara Jennifer Smith, 53, was sentenced to repay $6593 to the Order of St John after being found guilty of six charges of theft.

Both were found guilty last month of stealing $6593 paid to them in 1994 for first aid courses they conducted for St John.

Geoffrey Smith was also convicted two weeks ago of two charges of fraud related to his attempt to register his ambulance service, the Waikato-based New Zealand Free Ambulance Service, with a false document in 1996.

At his sentencing yesterday, Judge Anne McAloon said Smith's previous convictions showed he had not learned from his mistakes.

In 1988, Smith was found guilty on fraud charges involving the false valuation of machinery costing $159,000. He served nine months' periodic detention and was ordered to pay reparations.

"Both sets of offending demonstrate an attitude of almost writing one's own rules," said Judge McAloon.

"It's very sad that what would have been a very proud record [of ambulance industry service] is going to be tarnished by your dishonesty."

She sentenced Smith to concurrent six-month jail terms on each of the theft charges, and nine months for each fraud charge.

Defence lawyer Richard Barnsdale said both Smiths would appeal against conviction and sentence.

Barbara Smith said outside the court that yesterday's prison sentence for her husband was a shock. and that the convictions were unjustified.

"We're devastated," she said. "We're definitely innocent."

She said the Free Ambulance Service would not be affected, and would be operating as usual today.

The service has had a troubled history since it began operating in the Waikato in 1993.

St John Ambulance officials complained in 1998 about the standard of the operation's services, and one of its drivers was convicted of careless driving that year after a collision between an ambulance and a car in Hamilton.

The Health and Disability Commissioner is investigating the service after the death of a patient it left at Waikato Hospital in 1998.

A critically ill woman, Emily Matekohi, was left slumped in a wheelchair in a hospital waiting room, without attention, on May 11. She died the next day.

The chief executive of the NZ Ambulance Board, John Ayling, said the Free Ambulance Service could continue to operate, as no official registration board existed.