A social worker lied to Corrections so she could take a man who was meant to be confined to his home with an ankle monitor for walks up Mount Maunganui.
Carrie Anne Matkovich was working at the time for a not-for-profit charity called Families Achieving Balance (Fab), which has since ceased operating.
One of Fab’s clients was a man who was on electronically monitored bail on family violence charges, meaning he was supposed to be at home 24 hours a day wearing an ankle bracelet.
The man legitimately gained permission from Corrections to leave home to attend a rehabilitative course run by Fab in March and April 2021, which Matkovich assisted with.
A week after the course began, a supervisor became concerned the man was trying to “emotionally manipulate” Matkovich, according to a decision from the Social Workers Disciplinary Tribunal.
The manager said the man would focus on Matkovich and not other facilitators, and tried to speak to her alone outside group settings.
The manager said she warned Matkovich not to talk with the man alone and to have no contact with him outside the course.
Despite this, Matkovich later used her work email to contact the team at the Department of Corrections, which is responsible for those on electronically monitored bail.
She told them the man had been chosen to join a “mental wellbeing course”, which would run between 9am and 1pm every Monday.
Matkovich did not work at Fab on Mondays and the organisation said later it had nothing to do with such...
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