Helping the needy

Stuff reports:

Alleged drug boss Paul Rodgers, also known as Porky Rimene, was often on a welfare benefit and living in a state house when police say he was the head of a multimillion-dollar drug ring.

Maybe it wasn’t very profitable?

In the High Court at Wellington yesterday, his longtime partner, Kelly Cole, 38, said that at the time Rodgers, whom she called Pork, was arrested last February, he was sick of the life he had been leading and wanted to settle down with her and the baby she was having.

Oh dear, the poor woman probably believed him also.

The other four children the couple had together had been removed from their care – one in the maternity ward – because they were being exposed to domestic violence. By the time the violence had abated in 2008 the alternative care arrangements had been made permanent.

Lost four children? Simple, just have a fifth!

A police witness estimated Rodgers’ gross income had been up to $4.5 million between May 2009 and last February and most of the time he had been receiving a Work and Income benefit as well.

That’s gross income. Doesn’t take account of his possible expenses such as guns, bodyguards etc.

She kept the books and wrote and read text messages for Rodgers because his literacy and numeracy were poor, she said. He had left school at 12 or 13.

There’s a lesson here for us.