Legal wrangling over release of fraudster Wayne Patterson

Wayne Thomas Patterson, 57, is due to be released next week.

A legal technicality has the Department of Corrections scurrying to impose special release conditions on a soon-to-be-released fraudster who stole millions of dollars in benefits.

Wayne Thomas Patterson, 57, stole $3.4 million in benefits by using fake identities and forged a letter on Carterton District Council letterhead in a bid to get the Parole Board to let him out of jail early.

In 2007, Patterson was jailed for eight years for faking up to 123 identities and claiming up to $54,000 a fortnight in benefits.

He was sentenced to a further nine months' jail in 2009 for attempting to escape lawful custody and escaping custody.

In 2015, Patterson, whose parents live in Carterton, was sentenced to another two years for forging the letter, which purported to offer him a job interview at the district council if he was released early.

He is due to be released next week, and a Department of Corrections lawyer, Ian Auld, yesterday asked the Masterton District Court to hear an application for special release conditions to be imposed.

Mr Auld said any conditions relating to Patterson's previous sentence would have been suspended due to the fresh convictions in 2015, and asked if the court could deal with the issue before Patterson's release on Tuesday.

Parole had not had the opportunity to impose special release conditions as Patterson had reoffended while still in jail, Mr Auld said.

Any conditions now would be targeted at his risk of reoffending, he said.

However, Patterson's lawyer, Jock Blathwayt, said the department had had months to raise the issue and it was unfair to rush things now.

"He's served his time and I'm conscious that he gets a fair hearing and it's not simply going to happen at the end of the list today.

"The probation service had months to come up with this and it's an abuse of process to try and fix up something that they say the parole board and the sentencing judge were wrong on."

He also questioned whether the court had jurisdiction to deal with the matter.

Judge Barbara Morris said while it was important that the issue was resolved quickly, a "few days after release isn't the end of the world".

The parameters between the sentencing act and the parole act were a "nightmare", Judge Morris said.

"[This has] a complicated history and potentially a complicated future."

She noted the department had begun the proceedings at the start of July.

"Judge Cameron didn't impose any special release conditions and Section 31 (1) of the Parole Act says that the conditions, if they were in place, would be discharged.

"That's left us in a position where Mr Patterson will be released without any special conditions and parole says there should be some imposed now."

Mr Auld said it was possible the department would seek interim release conditions.

"It's not an ideal situation and one that the department is partly responsible for."

A date has been set for early next week to see when the hearing will go ahead.