CATCHING THE KING OF BENEFIT CHEATS

Rights Information
Year
2009
Reference
F194928
Media type
Moving image
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Rights Information
Year
2009
Reference
F194928
Media type
Moving image
Item unavailable online

This content is for private viewing only. The material may not always be available for supply.
Click for more information on rights and requesting.

Series
INSIDE NEW ZEALAND
Place of production
New Zealand/Aotearoa
Categories
Television
Duration
1:00:00
Broadcast Date
9/12/2009
Production company
ISOLA PRODUCTIONS
Credits
Director: Stephen McQuillan
Producer: Rachel Jean
Producer: Stephen McQuillan
Director of Photography: Rhys Duncan
Editor: Ken Sparks
Cast: John Watson
Cast: Ora Simpson
Cast: Edward Newborn
Cast: Michael Pickard

''Inside New Zealand: Catching The King Of The Benefit Cheats tells the story of the world's biggest ever benefit fraudster - Kiwi, Wayne Patterson.
Patterson wanted to be a millionaire ever since he was a child - but rather than earning the money, he created 123 false identities and stole more than $3.4 million dollars in benefit payments over three years.
When police finally broke into his $200 a week two-bedroom unit in Massey, they found a whole secret world behind the unassuming exterior.
There was a cinema room with a three-meter screen, a gym room, a marble ensuite, a security system with video images front-and-rear, a complex computer system with more storage capacity than the Ministry of Social Development, a garden crowded with rare plants - and $750,000 worth of buried cash. There was 12 kilograms of gold bars and another $200,000 concealed underneath the shower cavity.
And in the ceiling there was all the documentation to support the 123 identities Patterson had assumed, the disguise he used in each of the Work and Income offices he visited and more than 100 keys to post office boxes from Kaitaia to Invercargill.
A search of Patterson's computers revealed that there was even more money in overseas bank accounts in Switzerland and Austria, and a string of companies registered in the Seychelles, Panama, Thailand and Malaysia.
After $4 million from Patterson's bank accounts was returned to the Ministry of Social Development (Social Welfare) - it was revealed that the Ministry received approximately $650,000 more than Patterson had misappropriated. He had invested the money very wisely, the Ministry of Social Development later said.
But despite his savvy investments, one question still remains; how did Patterson almost get away with stealing millions of dollars?'' Throng; throng.co.nz; 23/12/2009

INTERVIEWS: David Fisher, Marc Warner, Robyn Lonsdale, Paul Markham, Chris Fletcher-Jenssen, Doug Craig, Steve Bates, Ross McPherson, Nick Paterson, Peter Hughes, Bronwyn Saunders, Harry Quinn, Keith Manch.