Benefit fraudster Wayne Thomas Patterson fights special conditions on his prison release

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

A jailed fraudster faces a nervous wait to hear whether special conditions will be placed on his release.

Wayne Thomas Patterson, 57, stole $3.4 million in benefits by using fake identities and forged a letter 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, was sentenced to another two years for forging the letter, which purported to offer him a job interview at the Carterton District Council if he was released early.

He was due to be released this week but this has been held up after a Department of Corrections lodged an application to impose special release conditions.

This morning in the Whanganui District Court, Patterson's lawyer Jock Blathwayt said the special conditions being sought related to his earlier offending and the Parole Board was aware of this when it set the release conditions.

"There's nothing before the court today that wasn't before your honour and before the Parole Board a month or two before the sentencing was completed," he said.

Department of Corrections lawyer Sally Carter said the conditions could be tied to a "risk assessment" rather than to a specific offence.

Judge David Cameron reserved his decision, and did not say when it might be made.