Two Widows Defraud Pensions Dept.

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 533, 10 December 1928, Page 13

Two Widows Defraud Pensions Dept.

00 INCOME DECLARED REVENUE from farms (from Our Oun Correspondent) KAITAIA. To-day. Two widows were each fined £5 Kaitaia to-day for making false Lements to the Registrar of Pensions regarding their incomes. for obtaining £312 from the Penons Department by means of a false '•ateroent Eliza Davis, a widow, with . ,fttd child under 15. was cun--..d and h ned £5 and ordered to - £und £*l* to 1116 Government by Mr. ‘ y Luxford. S.M., at the Magistrate’s court this morning. Harold Digby Smith, registrar of slons , stated that each year since ,3>2 accused had given a sworn declarion that she had received no income , jring the preceding year, whereas she .d j„ fact, been milking 1G cows and fived cream cheques totalling £S IS rom the Kaitaia Dairy Company. Elisa Busby, a widow, with five children, was also charged with obtain„g £156 from the Pensions Departmont through false declarations, her ,oa Timothy having received sums totalling £6OO from the Dairy Company. Mr. J. B. Reynolds, for the defence, M id she bad not wilfully deceived the department. According to the Maori custom it was usual for transactions to be made by her eldest son. In declaring her income nil, she thought •ae was speaking the truth. She vas a hard-working woman, who had *one out washing to support her children and sho never laid claim to Timothy's earnings. She had personally never received any thing from the Dairy Company. She was convicted and fined £5 ajid costs, the amount to be repaid, to be assessed by the Pensions Department.