Country's worst benefit fraudster loses $3.3m in Apple shares

Convicted faudster Wayne Patterson. Photo / Paul Estcourt

A man convicted of the country's largest benefit fraud has reportedly lost his claim to cash and Apple shares worth $3.3 million held in Austria.

Wayne Patterson, 56, used 123 identities to illegally claim $3.4 million in benefits between 2003 and 2006.

When a search warrant was executed in 2006 on his West Auckland home - a rented property with a plain exterior but lavish interior - investigators found an office containing a sophisticated computer system to track the numerous bank accounts, $355,000 worth of gold ingots, $685,000 of cash hidden in the garden and another $185,000 in the house and his car.

Also found were 137 automatic teller machine access cards, 125 Inland Revenue cards, 102 forged birth certificates, 79 superannuation cards, 56 community service cards and a range of disguises.

By 2011, the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) had recovered $5.5 million from Patterson's offending - a profit of $2.1m - prompting him to write to The Dominion Post from Whanganui Prison angry that he had been forced to pay the Government more than his original theft.

He described the Government's recovery efforts as "legalised theft", to which prompted the then MSD chief executive Peter Hughes to say that any expectation Patterson should profit from his crimes was "as appalling as it is outrageous".

"Instead of whining from his prison cell, he might wish to give a little more thought to the rights of the taxpayers he stole from," Mr Hughes said.

Late last month a Viennese court ruled the Crown was entitled to cash and Apple shares held in the Anglo-Irish Bank in Austria, which have increased in value to $3.3 million, Fairfax reported.

Patterson reportedly has until mid-January to appeal the court's decision.

He has been serving a sentence of eight years, nine months' imprisonment for his offending and is due to be freed on July 27 next year.

However, he is due to appear before a judge again in June following allegations he forged letters to the Parole Board supporting his early release.