By Gurbir Singh
Nabjeet Singh (48) a former Investigator with New Zealand’s Ministry of Social Development has been sentenced to two years and nine months in prison, for fraudulently stealing nearly $360,000 over a period of 12 years.
He was sentenced on Friday in the Wellington District Court on 51 charges related to the offending. Last month, he pleaded guilty after he was extradited back to New Zealand from Australia where he moved after resigning from his job in August 2011.
Nabjeet who was responsible for investigating welfare cheats, himself created four fake beneficiary identities, including a identity of a fictitious child to receive benefit payments from the Ministry. In the process, he created fake addresses, dates of birth, false children names and schools, income tax numbers, bank accounts and mobile numbers.
This ‘unusual fraud’ was discovered only in Jan 2013 when the Ministry received a telephonic tip off from an anonymous caller. Nabjeet was tracked in Australia and brought back in April this year.
While sentencing him, Judge Peter Hobbs said the fraud was a "very serious case".
"You accessed the Ministry's computer system to allow these payments to be made for these fictitious beneficiaries, for the benefit of you and your partner,” he said.
Nabjeet's lawyer, Robert Lithgow, unsuccessfully argued for home detention instead of a prison sentence.
In relation to the offending, the Police have successfully recovered $263,956 from sale of his forfeited house and some Bonus Bonds.
In a statement released to this journalist, Ruth Bound, Chief Executive, Service Delivery of the Ministry of Social Development said, "It is particularly disappointing for us that someone entrusted with this responsibility has been convicted of committing serious fraud of this nature”.
The Ministry of Social Development “administers nearly $25 billion of income assistance and services to more than one million New Zealanders each year”, Ruth said, and “it is the first time one of our investigators has been prosecuted for fraud.”
Ruth, however, reassured that “since this offending occurred we have put in place a range of additional measures that mean someone in (Nabjeet) Singh’s position would not be able to commit these offences, in this way today”.
Gurbir Singh is a New Zealand-based feature writer & journalist.
He can be contacted at: gurbir@journalist.com & you can like him on Facebook