RELIEF BENEFITS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23220, 14 December 1938, Page 17

RELIEF BENEFITS

APPLICANT'S INCOME EXPENSES OF BOARDERS DEDUCTION NOT FRAUD [by telegraph—own correspondent] GISBORNE, Tuesday The magistrate, Mr. E. L. Walton, remarked that it was questionable whether tho accused should have pleaded guilty when an elderly man, whose name was suppressed, appeared before him on 44 charges of making false statements for the purpose of obtaining benefits under the Employment Promotion Act. Detective Helton isaid the sum of £32 6s 6d was involved. The prosecution alleged that accused's wife took in boarders, and accused received the excess payments by stating that his wife had earned less than she had. Accused Mas 63 years of age and nothing was previously known against him. Counsel for accused explained that a wireless set and a telephone had been installed for the use of the boarders, and also a woman had been employed casually to do their washing. These expenses had been deducted from the board moneys received each week by accused and shown as expenses in the weekly return supplied ,Jo the department. Accused had been assured by local representatives of the Employment Board that this was quite in order. However, an officer of the department from "Wellington said the system was wrong, and the prosecutions followed.

The Magistrate: It appears that accused made the deductions in a disorderly way, which was illegal and that the deductions would have been legal had they been made in an orderly way. If this 'is just somebody's idea of accountancy, this man should not have been prosecuted.

Mr. Walton said tho most that could be said was that accused had made a technical breach and, although his method of book-keeping was not like the department's, there was nothing morally wrong. Counsel for accused asked permission for accused to reverse his plea of guilty, but the magistrate would not allow him to do so, and accused was convicted and discharged.