Ten months home detention for wage subsidy fraud
15 May 2025.
A woman who made nine fraudulent claims under the COVID-19 Wage Subsidy scheme and received over $13,000 has been sentenced to home detention.
Natalie Olive Cornelius, 45, of Flaxmere, was sentenced in Hastings District Court on 10 April after earlier pleading guilty to four charges of using a document to obtain a pecuniary advantage and one representative charge of using a document to obtain a pecuniary advantage.
Cornelius made nine applications between March 2020 and August 2021.
She used her own name for six of the claims and the name of her former partner for the other three.
All applications nominated bank accounts Cornelius had exclusive use of. She received $13,086.40 from four of the claims.
She had not made arrangements to refund the fraudulent payments and the Ministry of Social Development sought a reparation order for the full amount.
Judge Richard Earwaker sentenced Cornelius to 10 months home detention and ordered her to pay reparation of $13,000.
Cornelius was given credit for her guilty pleas, but previous convictions were taken into account.
A total of 36 people have been sentenced in wage subsidy cases, and another 53 people are still before the courts as part of MSD’s programme of work on wage subsidy fraud and integrity. Since the scheme started, more than $829 million* in wage subsidies has been repaid. For more information about the Wage Subsidy Integrity and Fraud Programme please see here.
*figures as at 31 March, 2025.
