Sentencing — receiving property — discharge without conviction — COVID-19 wage subsidy — Sentencing Act 2002, ss 106 & 107 — Weng v Police [2014] NZHC 2586 — Liang v Police HC Wellington AP 38-02, 16 April 2003 — Iosefa v Police HC Christchurch CIV-2005-409-64, 21 April 2005. The defendant had pleaded guilty to three charges of receiving. He had received into his bank account three payments that were intended as COVID-19 wage subsidies. The payments totaled $18,745.60, and the defendant used the money to buy goods, pay off loans and to send to his family overseas. The applications for the subsidies were made in the names of other people, who when questioned denied making the applications or knowing anything about them. Although the applications provided the defendant's bank account details, the prosecuting agency was unable to prove that it was the defendant who had made the applications. However the defendant admitted that he knew that the money was not intended for him, and was reckless as to where it had come from. The defendant cooperated with the prosecution's investigation and subsequently paid back all of the money he had wrongfully obtained. The defendant sought a discharge without conviction. The Court considered that the offending was of low gravity. However the defendant was unable to show that the consequences of a conviction would be out of all proportion to the gravity of the offending. Therefore the Court declined the application for a discharge without conviction, but in the circumstances found it appropriate to convict the defendant and discharge him. Judgment Date: 7 October 2022.