I did read the article. Do you understand the separation of those who can afford private Healthcare in nz and those that can't, and the worsening outcomes for those that can't? Elderly in particular. The americanisation of our Healthcare is being accelerated by the current government into a two tier have and have not.
Politics 🗳️ NZ Politics
- Thread starter wizard of Tauranga
- Start date
NZWarriors.com
We're being trapped by a deliberate running down of the health system to force privatisation. Neoliberalism 101.
The cruelest thing is how it generally rises to unsustainable levels in retirement and at the point of life where it’s really needed
NZWarriors.com
Wonder how many women are in jail for ripping of the MSD for a pittance while this jerk gets home detention... sometimes the system just stinks!!!
Auckland businessman who took $773k in ANZ commissions gets home detention
An Auckland businessman who pleaded guilty to laundering over $770,000 from ANZ Bank has had his sentence downgraded from over three years’ imprisonment to home detention in an act of “mercy”.
Derek Waller, 66, appeared for sentencing on Monday in the Auckland District Court for money laundering charges after “illegally obtaining” $773,448.67 in funds not intended for him.
Waller was an employee of ING NZ between May 2002 and April 2005. At the time, ING NZ was 49% owned by ANZ and 51% owned by ING Group. ANZ later took full ownership.
ANZ and insurance provider AIG Insurance entered into commercial arrangements for ANZ to sell its insurance products.
The arrangement saw ANZ receive ongoing monthly commissions, calculated based on a percentage of the total premiums that continued to be paid by customers.
However, AIG commission records associated with the ANZ legacy products indicated commission payments were made payable to a bank account owned by Waller’s business, Nutfields Management.
These payments would then be transferred out of Waller’s business bank account and into personal accounts, including his Airpoints Visa Platinum account, a car payment account and another for bill payments.
Waller was entitled to these commissions while employed with ING, however after ending his employment in 2005, the payments should have ceased.
He instead continued to receive commission payments from June 27, 2006 until January 31, 2022, totalling $773,448.67.
Instead of alerting AIG Insurance or ANZ about the issue, Waller continued to transfer the funds to his own accounts for personal use.
It was not until April 2022 that ANZ became aware of the closure of ANZ-named insurance products following a review and found the discrepancy.
Crown lawyer Clare Antenen sought a starting point of four to four-and-a-half years’ imprisonment and requested a reparation order to repay ANZ for the funds.
Arguing on his behalf, defence lawyer Guyon Foley described Waller as an “innovative man, not a man who pays attention to detail”, and that the payments “were a commission for a business idea”.
“It was a crime, and his life as you can imagine, has been turned upside down,” Foley said.
He said Waller had no previous convictions and worked his entire life as a “respected businessman”, noting he currently runs a business with eight employees.
Waller was initially intending to go to trial to fight the charge, but came to the conclusion that the cost of the trial and the stress of a jury would not be worth it, instead submitting a guilty plea on August 29.
Foley acknowledged Waller’s actions were “reckless”, but not that of a fraudster, noting that he was not responsible for setting up the payment system.
He also stressed that the commission slips detailing the payments had the name of Waller’s business, and would have been identifiable if investigated sooner.
Foley said Waller had expressed his “sincere remorse and humility” in a letter to the judge before sentencing.
However, Justice Kirsten Lummis said she did not feel that remorse within the pre-sentence report, noting his reluctance to plead guilty in the first instance was perhaps a sign of this.
“It’s uncertain to me as to why he wouldn’t have known, with his experience,” Judge Lummis said.
Judge Lummis referred to impact statements from Waller’s wife and daughter, who were in attendance along with two of his friends, although did not read them out in full.
They described Waller as a “hard-working, good father who has love and care for his employees” and someone “known for his kindness”.
Waller’s family and friends were visibly upset during the sentencing, often sharing glances with Waller, who was in the stand.
Foley raised the importance of Waller’s current health status, noting he is a type-one diabetic. Waller also sustained a heart attack in 2018 and underwent quadruple bypass surgery in 2020, with his doctor describing his health as “unstable”.
During the sentencing, Waller held prescription medication and a monitoring device on his person, with Foley explaining he brought the items with him in case he was sentenced to imprisonment.
When considering whether reparations should be made to ANZ, Antenen sought a reparation order but couldn’t suggest an amount to be repaid as she had not been given evidence of Waller’s financial position.
She agreed with Judge Lummis that it was not realistic for the full amount to be repaid and reiterated that a percentage after living expenses were paid would suffice.
However, Foley contested the need for a reparation order, arguing that the amount lost by ANZ was “negligible”, given the bank’s $2.36 billion profit in its last financial result.
Foley had also advised Waller to set aside $50,000 that was originally going to cover expenses for a potential trial to instead be offered at sentencing for reparation.
However, Waller chose to use these funds for his current business to ensure his employees would receive appropriate remuneration over the Christmas break.
Considering the circumstances, Foley requested a starting point of three years’ imprisonment for Waller, discounted to home detention.
In deciding her sentence, Judge Lummis said the quantum of money received was the largest aggravating factor.
“That is significant and none of those funds have been recovered.”
While there was no victim impact statement from ANZ, Judge Lummis said the bank’s investigation required a high amount of work that “could have been spent in other ways”.
“There is a wider victim in terms of all of ANZ’s customers who in some ways will be paying for any losses that ANZ makes, in a general way.”
Judge Lummis settled on a starting point of three-and-a-half years’ imprisonment.
After considering his early guilty plea and his prior good behaviour, noting he had never been in court before, Judge Lummis discounted his sentence by 40%, resulting in 25 months’ imprisonment.
Judge Lummis acknowledged that the sentence was higher than what would be considered appropriate for home detention, and offered “an act of mercy from the court” for a further reduction to allow the end sentence to be one of home detention.
“You are someone who has stayed on the right side of the law and got on with making an honest living over a considerable period of time.
“From everything I’ve read about you, I take it the court will not be seeing you again and this has been a considerable shock to you. I hope you will make every effort to repay ANZ and make payments to them.”
Waller was sentenced to 12 months’ home detention at his Mairangi Bay property.
Auckland businessman who took $773k in ANZ commissions gets home detention
Derek Waller allowed ANZ-linked commissions to be paid into his account for 16 years.www.nzherald.co.nz
Stuff
www.stuff.co.nz
Beginning to see a bit of a pattern here with how white collar crime is being treated
there must be a bit of that at the moment. I had an unsolicited call from their retentions team this week (for the first time in 15 years), so there must be a lot of people downgrading or cancelling their policies at the moment
Southern Cross have been doing the double whammy the last few years - rising premiums and quietly reducing cover
While the current government runs down our health system deliberately
NZWarriors.com
But the article didn't have anything to do with any government. It was about her premiums going up, which were due to:
- her age
- the technological advancements in medicine
- higher pay for medical staff!
- increasing number of people requiring medical care
- aging population
- increased demand for private care / reduced trust in public
- desire for wealth protection
Health insurance is a cohort-pays system. In the largest example (Southern Cross), it is a not-for-profit. It's not really aimed at old people, and gets expensive as that cohort requires more medical support than younger groups. That's why people drop off it when they are old. Because it gets too expensive for that cohort to cover each other's medical costs by their premiums
It's there to protect people from the financial shock of a surprise medical event, usually during growing or peak earning ages, as well as when people have dependents. It's not a surprise for 73 year olds to require medical support, so people like her typically cancel their policies at her age, and the cohort that is left to cover each other's medical costs (as a group) are those that have medical needs, so claims are high = premiums are high.
Links please.
More funding increases for health. More nurses and doctors have been added. More Cancer treatments available. More elective surgeries completed....
Almost like you have your entire life to accrue the the resources needed...
NZWarriors.com
Sneha Patel, who operated several businesses in Auckland and Hamilton, had been found guilty of multiple charges, including six counts of exploiting unlawful or temporary workersStuff
Beginning to see a bit of a pattern here with how white collar crime is being treated
Tell us more about your pattern noticing @Noitall
Smart move I reckon. We’d gone years of seemingly paying overs for our health needs however this year it’s funded plenty - partly from me being a hypochondriac as I neared a milestone birthday, but the whole family has claimed plenty. Then of course there’s the possibility of something really major requiring funding to go private. Plus the inability to cover new ailments if they come along when you aren’t insured.
NZWarriors.com
So Southern Cross, who made a $56 million loss this year are only in it for the money. Nice one!!
Southern Cross posts $56.9 million deficit for year ended June
The Southern Cross Health Society continues to make record returns to members, though insurance premiums will rise as costs have left the society's insurance business in the red.
www.rnz.co.nz
Simple fact is, health and life insurance all increase as you age….. always have, always will.
I was quoted for a life insurance policy this year which would run out at 85. The premiums in the last year would have been over $32 k.
Instead, we’re taken out a far smaller policy and transferred the rest of the premiums into a managed fund. With the money we’ll put in and compounded interest, in around 15 years, we’ll cancel the life policy as the managed fund balance will be more than the insured amount.
We’ve only got third party car insurance as we’ve already saved the replacement value off our vehicles so we can replace them.
When S got made redundant this year, we lost the company subsidy to Southern Cross so reduced the cover and increased the excess. Then she got another job which didn’t offer full coverage but we increased the policy and reduced the excess. The company subsidy means we’re still not paying as much as when she wasn’t working.
Insurance is a bugger… we don’t like paying for it, but when we need it, we’re glad we’ve got it.
Only the scarce work situation that I decided to make that decision to opt out, but for your final thought is why I decided to opt back in. These things are what they are and you’ve got to hope there’s no loophole you fall under seeing some terrible situations in the past of companies flouting their obligations because of some small technicality, some even elderly and vulnerable that have paid handsomely into it. My ex wife who’s a nurse used to struggle with those that had private cover but also used the public system often seeing what dates they could get in earliest. In her view if you have private insurance, you should use that system and leave the public one for those needing itSo Southern Cross, who made a $56 million loss this year are only in it for the money. Nice one!!
Southern Cross posts $56.9 million deficit for year ended June
The Southern Cross Health Society continues to make record returns to members, though insurance premiums will rise as costs have left the society's insurance business in the red.
Simple fact is, health and life insurance all increase as you age….. always have, always will.
I was quoted for a life insurance policy this year which would run out at 85. The premiums in the last year would have been over $32 k.
Instead, we’re taken out a far smaller policy and transferred the rest of the premiums into a managed fund. With the money we’ll put in and compounded interest, in around 15 years, we’ll cancel the life policy as the managed fund balance will be more than the insured amount.
We’ve only got third party car insurance as we’ve already saved the replacement value off our vehicles so we can replace them.
When S got made redundant this year, we lost the company subsidy to Southern Cross so reduced the cover and increased the excess. Then she got another job which didn’t offer full coverage but we increased the policy and reduced the excess. The company subsidy means we’re still not paying as much as when she wasn’t working.
Insurance is a bugger… we don’t like paying for it, but when we need it, we’re glad we’ve got it.
