Wairarapa fraudster owes Crown $3.3m

PAY BACK: Benefit fraudster Wayne Thomas Patterson, who allegedly forged an offer of employment from the Carterton District Council, will have to pay back $3.3 million he invested in Austria. PHOTO/WAYNE DROUGHT

A fraudster who allegedly faked a job offer from Carterton District Council will be forced to pay back $3.3 million from investments he made in Austria.

The Vienna Court of First Instance has ruled the Crown is entitled to the funds Wayne Thomas Patterson invested in the Anglo-Irish Bank in Austria.

Patterson, whose parents live in Carterton, is serving a sentence of eight years and six months for fraudulent offending, including forging documents, after he stole $3.4 million worth of benefits.

Although the Crown recovered the initial $3.4 million, it has spent years trying to recover the Apple shares and cash Patterson hid in Austria.

In June last year Patterson's parole board hearing was adjourned because of concerns an offer of employment from the Carterton District Council was a forgery.

The Parole Board decision shows the board received a letter purporting to be from Paul Reynolds of the Carterton District Council.

The letter said Patterson had been offered an interview with the possibility of employment with the council in the horticulture department.

However, when the board contacted the council, they were advised there was no such person as Paul Reynolds nor any horticultural department.

Carterton District Council chief executive Colin Wright said he was contacted by the Corrections Department regarding the letter, which appeared to be written on Carterton District Council letterhead.

"We said no, we've never heard of this before - it's not from us.

"It was a bit of a bolt out of the blue at the time."

Patterson is due to appear in January on seven charges relating to writing forged letters in support of a failed parole bid.

Patterson's parents were contacted by the Times-Age but declined to comment.

Patterson used as many as 123 false identities to claim benefits and was raking in $54,000 a fortnight in benefits - mainly pensions he gained by disguising himself as an elderly man and fooling benefit staff across the country.

When police raided his flat in Auckland in 2006 they discovered $750,000 cash buried in the garden, $200,000 and 18 gold bars hidden under the shower, $13,000 in his car, and boxes of fake birth certificates, bank cards, driver licences and passports.

He had even spent $50,000 creating an elaborate tropical garden behind the rented terraced flat in order to hide his loot.

He was convicted of benefit fraud in Australia and the United States, before he returned to New Zealand to carry out this operation.

His current jail sentence ends in July next year.