The judge noted Spooner\u2019s comments in a report where she stated the extra payments gave her a feeling of security, \u201ceven though you knew it was wrong\u201d.<\/p>\n
Spooner applied for the sole parent support benefit in January 2020 after advising the Ministry of Social Development that her marriage had ended and her husband had moved out.<\/p>\n
She received money from January 28, 2020 until March 20, 2023, when she stopped it.<\/p>\n
However, she applied for it again, and it was granted from August 2, 2023, until she stopped it again on February 12, 2024.<\/p>\n
As a result of information received, the Ministry of Social Development found that Spooner had reconciled with her husband after a month.<\/p>\n
During the relevant periods, the ministry found that Spooner had received credits totalling $286,316.21.<\/p>\n
When questioned on August 23, 2023, she confirmed she knew her obligations and had asked her husband to leave due to addiction issues.<\/p>\n
She said her husband returned after the birth of their youngest child on February 25, 2020.<\/p>\n
She had access to their joint account and would transfer money into her individual accounts for bills.<\/p>\n
Her husband assisted her financially \u201cwith what was required\u201d.<\/p>\n
She told the investigator that there had been difficult times but \u201caccepted to emotional interdependence and supporting her husband through his addiction\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe defendant advised that their high living costs and the uncertainty of her marriage contributed to her not advising the ministry of the reconciliation.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, Spooner declined to comment on why she offended a second time, other than saying it was \u201can emotionally difficult time\u201d.<\/p>\n
Hope Amy Spooner stood for the Better Waip\u0101 team as a Cambridge Ward candidate for the Waip\u0101 District Council in last year’s elections. Photo \/ Waip\u0101 District Council<\/p>\n
As a result, the Ministry of Social Development was seeking repayment of $107,132.84, combining her benefit overpayment with accommodation supplements, temporary additional support, the special needs grant, the disability allowance and the winter energy payment.<\/p>\n
The ministry would now use its statutory powers to get the money back.<\/p>\n
Spooner was yet to start repayments.<\/p>\n
Crown prosecutor Matthew Temm accepted that the sentence would likely be either community or home detention.<\/p>\n
He also accepted that Spooner was responsible for four children and that their care would be a priority.<\/p>\n
Temm opposed permanent name suppression.<\/p>\n
Hope Amy Spooner, 34, leaves the Hamilton District Court today. Photo \/ Belinda Feek<\/p>\n
In discussions with Spooner\u2019s counsel, Scott McKenna, Judge Saunders said it was hard to read his client\u2019s remorse letter without her appearing to pass the blame.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s hard to read her letter without the inference that, \u2018but for what my husband was doing, I wouldn\u2019t have offended\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn other words, he\u2019s to blame,\u201d she put to him.<\/p>\n
McKenna said his client \u201cdid do it and she has taken responsibility for it\u201d.<\/p>\n
As for suppression, it appeared her court appearance had been mentioned \u201conline\u201d at some stage, which was \u201cparticularly embarrassing\u201d for his client, but that was \u201cirrelevant\u201d to the suppression discussion. <\/p>\n
Judge Saunders said Spooner\u2019s premeditation was self-evident, particularly the second time. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt was over a nearly four-year period with an overpayment of $107,000 and is a breach of trust, given the welfare system relies on honesty.\u201d<\/p>\n
Spooner also produced a letter of support from Hamilton City Council councillor Andrew Bydder.<\/p>\n
But, the judge said, the councillor had only known Spooner for two years and that was post-offending.<\/p>\n
After taking a starting point of two years, she allowed 15% for her guilty pleas and 5% for remorse.<\/p>\n
However, she decided against issuing a credit for previous good character. <\/p>\n
\u201cA lack of previous convictions is an aggravating factor personal to you, and I am not persuaded that good character should, in these circumstances, be persuasive of a discount.\u201d<\/p>\n
She sentenced Spooner to the maximum six-month community detention term, together with 14 months\u2019 intensive supervision.<\/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":"She sought name suppression, which was declined by Judge Kim Saunders. Spooner, a mother of four, told a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":564502,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[23562,277837,13735,579,1554,1052,15382,7800,19956,10712,5205,37484,170,7557,5903,39171,2109,1644,2740,2883,78,440,1868,28874,130,137792,111,43,139,69,1118,21411,1072,14642,131,63336],"class_list":["post-564501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-23562","tag-107k","tag-actions","tag-addiction","tag-alleged","tag-benefits","tag-blamed","tag-body","tag-candidate","tag-claiming","tag-council","tag-defrauded","tag-development","tag-district","tag-election","tag-exhusband","tag-family","tag-financial","tag-former","tag-hope","tag-in","tag-local","tag-meth","tag-ministry","tag-more","tag-msd","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-pressure","tag-social","tag-spooner","tag-than","tag-waip"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564501","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=564501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564501\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/564502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=564501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=564501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=564501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}