Fraudster’s millions come home
The Government has banked $4 million worth of Apple shares after the ill-gotten gains of benefit fraudster Wayne Patterson were prised from an Austrian bank after almost a decade of trying.
Patterson, 58, was last year released from an eight-year, ninemonth prison lag after pleading guilty in 2007 to stealing $3.4m in multiple charges of benefit fraud.
He faked 123 identities to claim up to $23,000 a week for three years before his arrest in 2006.
Thanks to Patterson’s canny investments, the Crown was soon able to recover more than the full amount he had stolen, including $1m in cash and shares he had deposited in Swiss bank accounts.
But about $215,000 in cash and $810,000 in Apple shares he had deposited in Austrian banks proved trickier to repatriate.
Despite the New Zealand courts granting the solicitor-general a confiscation order for these funds, the Austrian legal system allowed Patterson to engage a governmentfunded lawyer to fight the Crown’s application to recover the funds.
Patterson accused the Government of ‘‘legalised theft’’, claiming the amount stolen had already been recovered.
After a 10-year battle that traversed various tiers of the Austrian courts, the Crown was the victor and in November it received the shares, which had sky-rocketed in value to $4,035,301.80, and the $136,000 deposited in cash.
The funds were deposited in the Government’s consolidated fund.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (Mbie) said the cost of repatriating the funds, including legal costs over the years, had been $690,000.
Patterson was released from prison on July 25 last year and lives with his parents near Carterton in Wairarapa.
He could not be reached for comment yesterday.
A Ministry of Social Development spokeswoman said Patterson’s case was ‘‘extraordinary’’ and the ministry thanked MBIE for repatriating the funds.