Media release

20 January 2012

Jail sentence imposed after father and son ‘invent’ job to defraud ACC

Jonathan Lloyd Kenneth Adolph, aged 36 of Hamilton, was sentenced today to two and a half years’ imprisonment in the Hamilton District Court, after he made up details of a non-existent job to fraudulently claim ACC weekly compensation.

His father, Lloyd Kenneth Adolph, who also lied to ACC to support his son’s fictitious story, was sentenced to 150 hours’ community work.

Both had pleaded not guilty to the charges laid against them, but were found guilty following a seven-day trial by jury at the Hamilton District Court last November.

Jonathan was convicted of 24 charges of dishonestly using a document and one charge of obtaining a pecuniary advantage by deception. Lloyd Adolph, aged 69, was convicted of one charge of obtaining a pecuniary advantage by deception.

In addition to the jail sentence, Jonathan was ordered by Judge Tompkins at today’s sentencing to pay reparation of $113,520.27, this being the full amount of weekly compensation fraudulently obtained.

Jonathan’s offending began after he suffered an injury during an altercation with a real estate agent on 17 November 2006 He told ACC he’d been working immediately prior to the injury as an operations manager at the Alcamo Hotel (Hamilton) of which his father was a director.

Jonathan provided ACC with fabricated documents to support his false claims about his employment history, and ACC began paying him weekly compensation on 11 December 2006.

In March 2008, ACC received information alleging that Jonathan had not been working during the period he claimed he was. When Jonathan became aware of ACC investigations into this allegation, he changed his story about the work role he’d supposedly been performing, and provided ACC with further fabricated documents to support his new story.

Jonathan’s father Lloyd was interviewed as part of ACC’s investigation, and corroborated his son’s false story. Lloyd also signed some of the false documents Jonathan provided to ACC.

ACC continued to investigate Jonathan’s circumstances, and established that both scenarios presented regarding his employment history were fabricated.

Weekly compensation payments to Jonathan were therefore suspended on 9 June 2009, and the charges which led to today’s sentencing were subsequently laid.

ACC’s General Manager of Claims Management, Denise Cosgrove, welcomed today’s sentencing, saying this was a case of very deliberate and sophisticated fraud against ACC.

“ACC collects levies to help people with genuine injury-related needs, so the offending of Jonathan and Lloyd Adolph amounts to theft from honest, hard-working New Zealanders.”

“ACC has a dedicated Investigations Unit, which is committed to bringing to justice anyone who acts fraudulently against ACC,” says Ms Cosgrove.

“Today’s sentencing shows that no matter what lengths some dishonest individuals may go to in order to defraud ACC, there’s a good chance they’ll be found out. They'll also receive a penalty that reflects the repugnance which most New Zealanders feel about this type of offending.”

ENDS

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