The Tauranga District Court sentenced Paulette Main to three years behind bars
The Tauranga District Court has sentenced Bay of Plenty-based lawyer Paulette Main to three years in jail for cheating a legal support scheme out of almost $375,000, reported the NZ Herald.
The justice ministry’s Family Legal Advice Service (FLAS) scheme granted lawyers offering out-of-court, Care of Children Act-related advice two discrete claims per client in a one-year dispute period. The goal was to help parties resolve disputes without requiring court proceedings, with the ministry paying lawyers a fixed fee.
While practising as a Family Court lawyer, Main had submitted various combinations and spellings of clients’ names to get money from the scheme from December 2017 to July 2022. She also altered birth dates and dates of disputes.
She used 26 former clients’ information to file over 1,200 fraudulent claims. One client’s data were reportedly utilised to make 247 claims, with Main allegedly securing $72,444.25 as a result. She also claimed money from the FLAS scheme using the information of people she had never represented but had been involved in cases where she acted for the opposing party or was a lawyer for child.
Main had advertised her services on Women’s Refuge, which was where many clients obtained her contact information. One client said that after meeting with Main to get legal advice, she found out that Main had used her name, her granddaughter’s name, and her granddaughter’s deceased paternal grandmother’s name to secure claims.
Main was charged in 2023 and pleaded guilty to two representative charges of obtaining by deception and of obstructing the Serious Fraud Office’s investigation on 1 April.
Tony Rickard-Simms, the lawyer defending Main, said in a statement published by the Herald that Main’s mind was “disorganised” following a brain injury suffered in a 1994 car accident. Main would reportedly struggle to recall what happened in court proceedings she had just attended.
During the period in which she made the false claims, she had been “putting in invoices for things she had done, and things she hadn’t done”, Rickard-Simms said in a statement published by the Herald. He argued that she had already recognised that she could no longer practise as a lawyer.
Crown prosecutor Michael Thomas highlighted breach of trust as a significant aspect of Main’s offence because she was a lawyer and an approved provider under the justice ministry’s scheme. He also said her actions were premeditated and her offences had repeated over several years.
Judge Melinda Mason pointed out that Main did not show remorse and shame over her conduct and said the quality of her legal work did not justify her fraudulent actions. While the judge accepted that Main did have mental health problems, an assessment indicated that they did not lead to the offence.
Mason initially set a four-year prison term, but made discounts for Main’s guilty plea, her mental health, and the effect of the imprisonment on Main’s dependent son. Rickard-Simms said he had instructions to appeal and sought bail, but the judge denied the bail request on the grounds that Main had to commence her sentence.
