Department of Internal Affairs at forefront of moves to reduce identity theft
14/12/2007
The Department of Internal Affairs is reassuring the public that it is working intensively with other Government agencies to clamp down on identity theft. This follows the sentencing today of an American woman who stole the identity of a dead New Zealand girl and claimed $31,400 in welfare benefits under her assumed name.
Laurelyn Smith was sentenced at the Wellington District Court to two months and one week imprisonment and $11,000 in reparations after pleading guilty at an earlier hearing to one charge of impersonation and one charge of forgery. Because she has already served this period she will be deported from New Zealand this weekend. She arrived in New Zealand with her two sons in June 1993 with an illegally obtained British passport and obtained the birth certificate of a New Zealand infant, who died soon after birth in 1962. Smith then used the birth certificate to get an Inland Revenue number and to set up a bank account, and used the child’s identity to claim benefits.
“There has been a big increase in identity fraud in recent years and we need to do everything possible to stay ahead of the fraudsters and take firm action to deal with them,” says Sue Boland, the Department’s Acting General Manager, Identity Services. “Identity theft is a growing source of concern to New Zealanders, but in many cases the crime goes undetected or is hard to investigate.”
Ms Boland says the Department of Internal Affairs is working closely with other Government agencies to target identity fraud. This work includes stewardship of the Evidence of the Identity Standard, launched last year by the Ministers of Internal Affairs and State Services, and notification of lost and stolen passports to international agencies, including Interpol. The Department of Internal Affairs has also been involved with the State Services Commission to develop an online Identity Verification Service.
“We’re determined to protect the people of New Zealand and government agencies against identity fraudsters and the havoc they wreak,” says Sue Boland.
