Couple sentenced
for welfare fraudTwo who abused public assistance
were driving a Mercedes and truck
A husband and wife who bought an expensive pickup truck and leased a new Mercedes while on public assistance were sentenced yesterday for welfare fraud.
"This was not a fraud-for-subsistence case, this was fraud for greed and not for need," said Deputy Attorney General Rick Damerville.
Circuit Judge Michael Wilson sentenced husband Gino Tennis, 26, also known as Robbie Sterio, to 113 days in jail, with credit for time served, as a condition of five years' probation and ordered him to repay the state $24,552.
Wilson granted wife Crystal Tennis' request to defer her no-contest plea. He said he granted the deferral to allow her to care for the couple's two children. He also ordered her to send the children to school and to pay $24,552 in restitution.
The couple had been indicted for first-degree theft for receiving more than $49,000 in public assistance they were not entitled to from March 1999 to August 2002.
Crystal Tennis, in her public-assistance application, had said the father of her two minor children was not living with her and not working, when in fact he later was, and that she was sharing rent with another person.
"This case boils down to a wanted fugitive who came here, took the name of Tennis to live with his common-law wife and have the welfare department pay for his lifestyle and with normal living expenses so he can drive around in a 2000 Silverado bought in 2000 and a Mercedes Benz C240, which the welfare department basically paid for," Damerville said.
Damerville said outside court that the Tennises come from families that use phony Social Security numbers and multiple identities as a way to survive economically.
In court, Crystal Tennis, 23, asked Wilson not to send her husband to jail, saying it will only pull the family deeper into debt.
But Wilson said the offense they both were charged with was a significant violation that cost the state greatly, lasted more than three years and showed "premeditated effort."
Crystal Tennis' attorney Winston Ling argued that she genuinely needed public assistance when she and her husband relocated here. Both had no jobs, she had been home-schooled and had no formal education and they had a child to support.
Ling said Crystal Tennis applied for assistance in her name because she was vaguely aware her husband had a pending charge in Texas and did not want Texas authorities "to come here and drag the father of her child away."
Attorney Alvin Nishimura, who represented Gino Tennis, had asked that his client be granted a deferral of his no-contest plea and that he not receive any additional jail beyond 53 days he has already served. "Mr. Tennis is the only breadwinner (doing auto body work); if the father is incarcerated, the wife and kids will live on the street," Nishimura said.
The couple's scheme unraveled when the state began investigating Gino Tennis, who apparently is wanted in Texas under the alias Paul Gills in connection with a 1997 burglary. Gino Tennis' name popped up as a reference by another individual applying for housing assistance.
The state began identifying fleeing or suspected felons who are receiving public assistance from the state and cutting off their benefits last fall.
Not only did authorities learn that Tennis was a fugitive, but that he apparently was the father of Crystal Tennis' two children and was living with them.
Gino Tennis acknowledged yesterday that there is an outstanding warrant in Texas for his arrest. He said he was "really scared" and did not want to leave his then-pregnant girlfriend alone, so he changed his name and they moved to Hawaii to start all over, he said.
They were not doing well when they arrived here, so she applied for public assistance and he tried to do auto body repair work on the side. But the $450 monthly checks they were receiving were not enough to cover the $1,000 rent, he said.
Damerville disputed the amount of benefits cited by Tennis, saying the couple initially was receiving $565 in public assistance, plus $282 per month in food stamps and about $160 in medical benefits. By the middle of 2002, they were still receiving $565 in public assistance, the amount of food stamps they were receiving increased to $324 and their medical was paid for, Damerville said.