{"id":389864,"date":"2026-04-21T04:25:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T04:25:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/389864\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T04:25:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T04:25:08","slug":"benefit-fraudster-kataraina-matiu-to-pay-back-msd-using-her-own-benefit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/389864\/","title":{"rendered":"Benefit fraudster Kataraina Matiu to pay back MSD using her own benefit"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThank you, your honour,\u201d Matiu said as she walked out of the dock<\/a> in the Hamilton District Court on Monday. <\/p>\n

\u201cI won\u2019t let you down.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Operation Hawk\u2019<\/p>\n

In February 2020, MSD was alerted to a widespread fraud involving an accommodation supplier, a company they would later discover to be fictitious.<\/p>\n

It had been listed as supplying rental accommodation between November 2018 and July 2022 for 21 different \u201cclients\u201d.<\/p>\n

All up, it had received $45,502.75 in hardship grants, which went into the account of Matiu\u2019s co-accused.<\/p>\n

An investigation found that between December 5, 2018, and December 24, 2019, forged and false tenancy documents were created and supplied to ministry clients, who then submitted the fake documents to obtain hardship grants for bond, rent in advance, and rent arrears.<\/p>\n

The money was sent to Matiu\u2019s co-accused, and some clients involved in the scam got a share of the funds, while others were deceived, believing they were being offered a genuine tenancy.<\/p>\n

\u201cClients\u201d, including Matiu, then received supplementary benefits, including accommodation and temporary additional support supplements, which were granted based on their falsely declared costs.<\/p>\n

Matiu first filled out an application on March 28, 2019, for a tenancy at a Sutton Cres, Hillcrest property using the fake company name as the purported landlord.<\/p>\n

In claiming the above-named supplements, she stated her rental costs were $370 per week.<\/p>\n

That day, $2220 was paid out to the fake company, and her co-accused transferred some funds to a third party and withdrew the rest as cash.<\/p>\n

Up until November 2021, Matiu filled out five temporary additional support forms and other forms, falsely stating her address and costs.<\/p>\n

On November 5, she filed an eviction letter, stating she was being evicted from the house that she had never actually lived in.<\/p>\n

Matiu\u2019s total fraud was $24,832.85.<\/p>\n

However, when interviewed, Matiu continued her ruse, denying that she knew the documentation was false and claiming she had been ripped off by her co-accused.<\/p>\n

The assault happened in the Hamilton District Court on October 6 last year after she turned up to support a family member. <\/p>\n

As her cousin was involved in a \u201cdisorder\u201d incident outside court, Matiu approached one security officer and punched him in the face with a closed fist.<\/p>\n

As she was detained, she shin-kicked the second victim.<\/p>\n

\u2018She will accept any sentence given to her\u2019<\/p>\n

Matiu\u2019s counsel, Christine Hardy, urged the judge to consider a sentence of community detention as she couldn\u2019t do community work for health reasons.<\/p>\n

Her driver\u2019s licence had also been revoked due to her suffering from sleep apnea.<\/p>\n

She has four children, the two youngest of whom were in her care, while her mother looked after the two older teenagers.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe 34-year-old was in the Hamilton District Court for sentencing after admitting defrauding MSD of nearly $25,000 over 19 months. Photo \/ Belinda Feek<\/p>\n

Asked by the judge where the father was, and after checking with Matiu, Hardy said the only support \u201cin the community\u201d was her mother. <\/p>\n

Judge Clark said Matiu knew what she was doing was wrong, \u201cbut did nothing about it\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there does need to be some punitive element.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe taxpayers will pay themselves back, so there\u2019s not a lot of penalty here at all.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe will accept the sentence that is given to her,\u201d Hardy replied, adding that methamphetamine use was an issue for Matiu at the time of her offending.<\/p>\n

\u2018She helped perpetuate a fraud\u2019<\/p>\n

Judge Clark described Matiu\u2019s actions as \u201creally significant dishonest offending\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cMs Matiu clearly is someone who will strike out if she considers it justified and be violent, and she is someone who helped perpetuate a fraud over a significant amount of time.\u201d<\/p>\n

In deciding a starting point, she chose one higher than suggested by both MSD \u2013 12 months \u2013 and defence \u2013 10 months. <\/p>\n

The judge opted for 18 months.<\/p>\n

She then added three months on top of that for the assaults, along with a further month for her previous criminal history of dishonesty and drug offending.<\/p>\n

Getting to 22 months\u2019 jail, she then allowed a 25% discount for her guilty pleas, and agreed to step away from a prison term.<\/p>\n

In handing down the community detention term, she issued a curfew of 9pm to 6am every day, and banned Matiu from possessing alcohol and drugs.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you don\u2019t comply, if you don\u2019t engage, then I will bring you back here, and we\u2019ll think of a different sentence to impose upon you.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere will be a deduction from your benefit for the money that you owe, which is a little ironic,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

Belinda Feek is an Open Justice reporter based in Waikato. She has worked at NZME for 11 years and has been a journalist for 22.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThank you, your honour,\u201d Matiu said as she walked out of the dock in the Hamilton District Court…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":389865,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1863,21972,6126,42,1364,201688,173477,137792,43,5429,2744,61,40,38,41,39,3382],"class_list":{"0":"post-389864","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-back","9":"tag-benefit","10":"tag-fraudster","11":"tag-headlines","12":"tag-her","13":"tag-kataraina","14":"tag-matiu","15":"tag-msd","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-own","18":"tag-pay","19":"tag-to","20":"tag-top-news","21":"tag-top-stories","22":"tag-topnews","23":"tag-topstories","24":"tag-using"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=389864"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389864\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/389865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=389864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=389864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=389864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}