BIGGEST LOSER WINS

Ajay Rochester just doesn’t get it. The host of Channel’s Ten The Biggest Loser is a loser in more ways than one. She’s lost her reputation after pleading guilty to stealing more than $14,000 from Centrelink but when she walked out of court yesterday you’d have thought she’d won a lottery. To a degree she had. She’d appeared before the softest Magistrate imaginable in Pat O’Shane –who I believe should have been removed from the bench years ago but that’s another story – and, despite her admission of guilt, Rochester had no conviction recorded against her.

Did you see the celebrity photos on the news last night and in the papers today? No contrition. No ‘I’m sorry’. Not a hint that what she did was wrong. That she took money that didn’t belong to her. As I said on A Current Affair last night: This is theft. Rochester and other welfare cheats are thieves. And they are stealing not from the Government but from you – the mug taxpayer.

And when a magistrate lets a celebrity crim walk free that confirms to all the parasites,who treat welfare fraud like a national sport, that it is OK.

Rochester said:‘I am extremely relieved that this is all over. I’m just so happy to put it behind me and move on with my life and go home and be with my boy … and be happy and just get on with my future’.

No words of contrition or guilt there. Although I do feel some admiration for other parts of the TV host’s life. She reportedly suffered abuse as a child. She also battled depression and won her own fight against flab when she was grossly obese.

And, as a single mother, she raises a nine-year-old son with Asperger’s Syndrome.

But, ripping off the system is not a sport. It is a crime. Almost everybody knows somebody who is making false claims. A friend, a relative, a work-mate. Some people even boast about it.

Next time they skite about putting one over the government tell them they’re a thief. That they’re stealing your tax dollars.

And hope that so-called celebrities don’t get red carpet treatment in court when caught with their hand in the till.

FOOTNOTE: There was speculation in the media today that Ajay Rochester could make up to $100,000 by selling her story to one of the glossy magazines. I’d say 25 to 50. But a word of warning. Couldn’t the attorney-general seize that money as the proceeds of crime? I think so.

Thursday, January 15, 2009

© Copyright Derryn Hinch 2008