An Auckland woman was sentenced to home detention on charges of defrauding three government schemes set up to help companies adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdowns.
Emma Jane Dentice entered a guilty plea and was sentenced on receiving and fraud charges when she appeared in the Waitakere District Court on June 27, 2025.
Dentice was sentenced to 6 months home detention, a sentence which allows her to care for her elderly mother.
In April 2020, the Government announced a new Small Business Cashflow Loan (SBC) scheme with applications open from 12 May, 2020.
That month, an associate of Dentice’s accessed the myIR account of a company using the login details of a former director of the company, and applied for a SBC loan.
$11,800 was put into Dentice’s bank account. She withdrew nearly $2,000 and spent it. The rest was transferred to another of her bank accounts.
In February 2021, the Government introduced the Resurgence Support Payment (RSP) scheme to provide grants to businesses that were adversely affected by the raise in COVID-19 alert levels.
In September 2021, Dentice applied for a RSP but was turned down because she didn’t meet the criteria.
In 2022, the Government introduced the COVID-19 Support Payment (CSP) to help support viable and ongoing businesses or organisations which experienced a 40 per cent or more drop in revenue as a result of COVID-19 circumstances.
Dentice applied for a CSP in March 2022 but it too was declined because she didn’t meet the criteria.
The SBC, RSP and CSP schemes were implemented under urgency using a “High Trust” application model to ensure eligible businesses could access funds to support the business in a timely manner.
Dentice was not entitled to any of the money she applied for. Her offending was premeditated, spanned a 2-year period and was motivated by personal gain.