Two a penny

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Early school runs alarming

– Monday, 17 November 2008

Primary-school children left at school gates up to 50 minutes before schools open are playing chicken with cars on a busy Christchurch road.
Reports of the dangerous game come as no surprise to police, who say at least two children are injured in crashes outside New Zealand schools every morning.30am.
Mairehau Primary School principal John Bangma said about two dozen children were waiting outside the school gates when they opened each day at 8.
"We have had, occasionally, a child out there even as early as 7.
"It's always the few that are there and it leads to a few problems, really," he said.
"There is certainly a group of them there at 8am who have had parents drop them off," Bangma said.40 in the morning.30am.
The children had parents who had to start work at 8am or 8.
"And then you've also got the families where the children are, I guess, just organising themselves entirely.
"We've also got some where the children are left home and they just leave for school when they're ready.
"Are parents actually aware of what their kids are up to?" Bangma asked."
Bangma wrote to parents last week asking them to find a safe alternative to dropping children off early."
The issue was raised with Bangma by a neighbour of the school who saw pupils playing chicken with cars driving along Innes Road, and feared a child would be hurt.
"If it comes between a child and a car, a car is going to win.
Head of police youth services Senior Sergeant John Robinson said negligent parents risked finding themselves on the wrong side of the law.
Some parents thought the school had responsibility for pupils as soon as they left home, but this was not the case, Bangma said."
Police statistics showed at least two children were injured outside New Zealand schools every morning and one every afternoon, he said.
"You do open yourself up to that query as to whether or not you have taken the responsible approach with your kids.
"Kids unsupervised do dumb things, but, unfortunately, when they do dumb things, often the results are really, really, serious," Robinson said.
A report cited by former police minister Annette King last year said 1330 children in the five years to 2005 were killed or injured near schools during school terms, particularly during the high-risk morning and afternoon periods.40am was "completely and utterly unrealistic and unreasonable".
Canterbury Primary Principals' Association president David Taylor said an expectation that children could be left at school at 7."
Taylor, who is the principal of rural Fernside School in Rangiora, said a growing issue at his school was unsupervised children being left at bus stops."
Taylor, who is the principal of rural Fernside School in Rangiora, said a growing issue at his school was unsupervised children being left at bus stops.
"It's happened out here where kids have stood at bus stops and waited without parent supervision, and what do they do? They go run out on the road and back again.
"That's a growing one," Taylor said. .
SAFE ALTERNATIVES
Senior Sergeant John Robinson suggests:
Talk to your boss. "Some employers are great; some, it's much more difficult, but you actually need to go and have that conversation with them."
Car pool. "Check with your kid's friends. In amongst it all, every household in most of those schools is having those issues."

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Fraudster makes $1m for Govt coffers

By TOM FITZSIMONS Monday, 15 September 2008

New Zealand's worst benefit fraudster rode the soaring fortunes of Apple computer shares and gold bullion to a profit that has now netted the Government more than $1 million.
The huge windfall represents a rate of return that many professional investors would be proud of, a financial expert says.
And it has come to light that the Crown has netted more than double the initial $400,000 it expected under the Proceeds of Crime Act.
It comes after Wayne Thomas Patterson exhausted his appeals against an eight-year jail sentence, allowing the Social Development Agency to fully reveal the extent of his profits.4 million in benefit payments – sometimes drawing more than $50,000 a fortnight. From 2003 till 2006, Patterson used 123 fake identities to steal $3.
When police raided his house, they found stacks of gold bars in the garden, more than $800,000 in cash and hundreds of forged documents.
His appeals against an eight-year prison sentence were exhausted late the previous month.
Social Development Ministry deputy chief executive Hilary Reynolds said Patterson's assets were now worth about $1,001,793 more than what he actually stole. His bedroom included a marble master suite and tropical fish and the garden featured $50,000 worth of rare plants.
Most of the money in overseas accounts appears to be in Apple computer stocks, which have soared in recent years on the back of innovations like the iPod. Work was under way to recover more than $2 million worth of assets in overseas banks that were frozen after Patterson's arrest, she said. "It's certainly possible to make big money or to lose big money.
Financial author and columnist Mary Holm said investing a lot of money in gold bullion and a single technology stock was a risky strategy.5 per cent per annum."
However, assuming that Patterson's theft increased over the period, she calculated that the return on his investments might have been about 10.
Financial adviser Martin Hawes said gold and Apple shares had done "extremely well" during the period when Patterson was investing, though he might have done even better if the American dollar had not weakened at the same time.
Most fund managers would be "pretty proud of averaging that", she said."
The Social Development Ministry was so impressed with Patterson's abilities, it offered to help him find a job. "He's perhaps been very skilful but took an awful lot of risk.