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A man who pleaded guilty to dishonestly claiming $50,000 of the Government’s Covid-19 wage subsidy scheme was sentenced on Monday. (File photo)
A methamphetamine addiction, stoked by a gambling problem, drove a Taranaki man’s decision to scam $50,000 off the Covid-19 wage subsidy scheme.
Between March and September 2020, Logan James Cochrane was getting a benefit but pretended to be a business owner and dishonestly filed 34 claims to the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) to get a series of wage subsidy payments.
The taxpayer-funded programme was designed to financially support businesses and workers through the lockdown period.
Ten fake claims were successful, netting Cochrane $50,378, which he frittered away within days of the sums landing in his bank account.
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Breakfast
Paediatrician Jin Russell says infants weren’t exposed to enough socialising during Covid lockdowns.
At his sentencing on Monday, the Hāwera District Court heard how Cochrane had been smoking P heavily at the time of the offending and gambling online.
Judge Tony Greig said the once-successful businessman had also suffered a serious head injury in 2015, which saw him start to self-medicate and spiral back into offending after being crime-free for six years.
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