An Upper Hutt man has been jailed for almost four years after fraudulently receiving more than $82,000 in Covid support.

Shane Douglas McNally was sentenced on November 8 after pleading guilty to 68 charges relating to fraud by the Inland Revenue Department (IRD), the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) and the police.

Twenty-one of those charges came from the IRD and involved Small Business Cashflow Scheme (SBCS) fraud.

In 2020, McNally and his co-defendant, Brendon Blair McBride, filed 21 SBCS applications under 19 different identities.

Each application was for $11,800 and confirmed they met the plan’s criteria, including that they had a viable business and had experienced a decline in income of more than 30%.