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.

Matkovich emailed Corrections

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 a course.

Matkovich told a professional conduct committee that investigated her case that she ran a “mental wellbeing course” in her own time.

She said she would “take people up the Mount for a walk, release and talk”.

There were four people on the excursion, at most, she said.

Matkovich gained Corrections’ approval four times for the man to leave his bail address to go on the supposed wellbeing course.

She admitted she “made out that it was Fab’s when it was my own – not a project, but my own sort of thing”.

Social worker dismissed

Matkovich was dismissed from Fab, which made a mandatory report of her behaviour to the Social Workers Registration Board when it became aware of what she was doing.

Police considered filing criminal charges against her for her misrepresentations to Corrections, but later confirmed no such action was being taken.

The social workers’ professional conduct committee then charged Matkovich with professional misconduct in January 2025.

The charge notice said she had lied to Corrections, and that she had signed a character reference for the man on Fab letterhead, despite her manager not authorising it and instructing her to have no contact with him.

In a letter to the committee, Matkovich said: “As a new social worker at the time I admit my faults, but as Māori we don’t necessarily practice as a tick box ... Holistic practice has always been my go-to and it worked for the accused, as well as many of my clients I did great work with.”

In a subsequent meeting with the committee, she said she picked up the man “with the goodness of my own heart, out of my pocket”.

“We’d go for a walk and meet a couple of other people that would come with us. That was it,” she said.

“I do admit that I did ... break a lot of rules, and I did use Fab’s name when I shouldn’t have.”

However, Matkovich said she maintained a professional relationship with the man and did not cross boundaries, “apart from the lying”.

“I mean, I didn’t put any emotional stuff on him, or use his situation being vulnerable to manipulate or take advantage, or anything for my own gain,” she said.

Social Workers Complaints and Disciplinary Tribunal chairwoman Catherine Garvey said in the decision that Matkovich had disregarded the advice and guidance of her supervisor to maintain contact with the man around professional boundaries.

“That she facilitated exceptions to [his] bail conditions on false grounds is a clear act of professional boundaries being crossed.

“If, as asserted to the professional conduct committee, [his] mental wellbeing was poor and he was suicidal, then Ms Matkovich ought to have discussed this with her supervisor and considered an appropriate referral.

“This exemplifies the impact that an erosion of boundaries may have on the exercise of professional judgment,” she said.

The professional misconduct charge was proven. Matkovich’s behaviour was found to have been “deliberate, dishonest and potentially harmful” and she was censured.

Although Matkovich had said she no longer intended to practise as a social worker, the tribunal said it would cancel her registration so it could consider her case if she tried to re-register in future.

Matkovich was also ordered to pay costs of $14,835 to the professional conduct committee and $8632 to the tribunal.

Ric Stevens spent many years working for the former New Zealand Press Association news agency, including as a political reporter at Parliament, before holding senior positions at various daily newspapers. He joined NZME’s Open Justice team in 2022 and is based in Hawke’s Bay.