10 Sep 2014

Couple sentenced over false birth info

1:55 pm on 10 September 2014

A court has sentenced a South Auckland couple who falsely registered the birth of a child as their own to 60 hours' community work.

In the Manukau District Court today, Judge Ida Malosi made an order suppressing the defendants' names and any factors identifying them to protect the child.

The Department of Internal Affairs says the husband fathered the child with another woman; and after the child's birth in September 2005 the married couple registered the wife as the child's mother. It says seven years later the birth mother alerted the department.

The couple initially denied providing false information, but later made admissions in signed statutory declarations.

The Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages Jeff Montgomery, who initiated the prosecution, welcomed the sentence.

Mr Montgomery said accurate and timely birth registration is a right of every child born in New Zealand. A child is entitled to know who his parents are - recording both parents on a child's birth registration provides evidence of the person's identity, descent and whakapapa.

Accurate information is needed for many reason - some entitlements, for example, inheritance and benefits received under trusts, depend on a person establishing that they are the son or daughter of the benefactor.

Certain government grants and benefits depend on a parent-child relationship being established.

In addition, a child may be able to claim citizenship status through a parent, and a birth certificate will provide prima facie evidence of that relationship.

The child's birth certificate has now been amended to record the birth mother.