Get out of jail free: Woman faked death certificates to get prisoners out of jail

It was by no means a dead cert.

Louise Witteveen faked death certificates and other documents to get her then-boyfriend and another prisoner free passes out of jail.

However, her forgery was revealed after it transpired the venue of a supposed headstone unveiling that one of the prisoners was going to attend had, in fact, been closed for years.

Witteveen, 30, of Bucklands Beach was sentenced to six months of community detention and 12 months of intensive supervision when she appeared in the Hamilton District Court on Friday, after earlier pleading guilty to three counts of using forged documents.

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It was a scheme she and her now-former partner, Adam Paul Martin, 35, of Puketaha, cooked up early last year, while Martin was a remand prisoner at Spring Hill Prison.

The elaborate ruse initially involving the supposed death of Martin’s father – who was very much alive and well on February 1, when Witteveen sent a text message to Martin’s lawyer, advising he had died of a heart attack in the early hours of the morning.

The following day, Witteveen used her work email address to send a forged tangi notice and a forged death certificate she had created to another email address. She then used that address to send the documents on to Martin’s lawyer, to give the appearance they had been sent by another person.

Witteveen also created a letter of support from the fictitious “Rosie Martin” which she sent to the lawyer, who made an application for compassionate bail in the Hamilton District Court two days later.

Martin was released later that day.

Although Martin returned to prison as scheduled a few days later, his cellmate – who employed the couple to engineer his own unwarranted release from jail – did not.

Teina Rongonui went on the run after his release in early March, after Witteveen provided him with a faked order of service, a forged death certificate, and a letter of support relating to his fake mother: Lynette Barbarich – who did not actually exist.

Rongonui was subsequently tracked down and arrested. He ended up being sentenced in November to two years and six months of imprisonment.

In early April, Martin and Witteveen tried the tactic again, this time using the story that he needed to attend the unveiling of his dad’s headstone.

This time, however, the plan fell apart. The proprietors of the venue where that ceremony was due to take place were contacted.

Not only was the event not happening, the venue had been closed for the past two years.

In court on Friday, Witteveen’s counsel Russell Boot said she had been compelled to offend by Martin, and it was the result of “some form of power imbalance over her”.

Crown prosecutor Bolivia Newton said Witteveen should be sentenced to home detention because the offending was “highly pre-meditated and sophisticated, as opposed to a momentary lapse of judgement because of coercion”.

“It was a very successful deception that put the community at risk.”

A strong sentence would also act as a deterrent to others, Newton said.

And Judge Brett Crowley said Witteveen’s fate could easily have been worse.

Martin – who the judge said was obviously the instigator and leader of the plan – had been sentenced in December to four months of home detention.

Judge Crowley said he needed to be mindful that Witteveen had the lesser role in the scheme, and thus needed a lesser sentence.

“If Martin had been sentenced to around two years in prison … I would have had no issue with the Crown submission that home detention was required.

“But it would not be fair.”