COVID Fraud Sentence For South Auckland Man

05 August 2024

A South Auckland man has been sentenced to home detention after taking money meant to help businesses suffering during the COVID pandemic.

Between May 2020 and May 2022, Samuela Aki dishonestly applied for six Small Business Cashflow loans (SBCS); four Resurgence Support Payments (RSP); and two Small Business Cashflow top-ups (SBCS top ups) when he knew he wasn’t entitled to any of them.

Aki plead guilty to the charges and was sentenced in the Manukau District Court on 11 June to 8 months home detention.

In April 2020, the Government announced a new Small Business Cashflow Loan scheme to support small businesses who were adversely affected by the Covid 19 pandemic.

The scheme was implemented under urgency using a “High Trust” model to ensure small businesses could access funds in a timely fashion.

Of the six SBCS loans Aki applied for, four were approved and two declined. The total amount paid out was $47,200.

All four of the RSP applications were declined and none of the funds were paid out.

Both of the SBC top up applications were declined, and neither were paid out.

As well as the pandemic relief, he also filed two false income tax returns.

Inland Revenue’s investigation confirmed Aki applied for the COVID relief and the income tax refunds using other people and businesses logons and used his personal bank account for the money to be deposited into.

The sentencing judge said a debt to the Inland Revenue which ultimately is a debt to the wider public. He said there was a degree of premeditation and the offending required planning.

Aki was also sentenced on police charges including six charges of obtaining by deception using a Facebook scam.

© Scoop Media