In the days and weeks after his wife, Jodie Fesus, went missing, Steve Frank Fesus was allegedly concerned with two things: getting the full single parent pension and keeping custody of Ms Fesus' toddler, a court has heard.
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But as Ms Fesus was officially missing, the social security department would only authorise a partial, temporary payment.
Mr Fesus was the last person to see his 18-year-old wife alive before she went missing sometime between the night of August 11 and the morning of August 12, 1997. He has pleaded not guilty to her murder and denies having any involvement in her death or burial in a shallow beach grave.
In the NSW Supreme Court on Tuesday, a jury heard that by September 11, 1997, Mr Fesus had only 34 cents in the bank. That evening, Ms Fesus' mother, Gai Smith, told him she wanted to take her grandchild with her.
Three days later police received an anonymous phone call from a male voice who reported finding human remains at Seven Mile Beach at Gerroa, south of Wollongong.
Police discovered Mrs Fesus' body partially uncovered, buried in a shallow grave.
After her body was identified, Mr Fesus quickly returned to the Department of Social Security and informed staff his wife was no longer missing, but was deceased. On a prior visit, he had ticked the "no" box on a form asking if the other parent was still living, before changing it to "yes" when questioned by staff.
These actions are part of the circumstantial evidence which proves Mr Fesus killed his wife and buried her in a beach grave, the prosecution says.
In his opening address, Crown Prosecutor Jose Crespo told the jury Mr Fesus had reason for his wife's body to be found.
A Holden Commodore was seen in the area the weekend before the anonymous call. It had the same three letters on the licence plate as the plate on Mr Fesus' car, which was the same make and model. Crime scene investigators would give evidence that the body had been recently uncovered.
"If the body was located he could tick the deceased box and benefits could be paid," Mr Crespo said.
"He went to the beach to uncover her body so it would be discovered."
The couple, who met in 1995 and married in May 1997, had been having difficulties and Mr Crespo described their relationship as "fractious".
Both spouses suspected each other of having extramarital affairs and Ms Fesus had spoken about leaving the marriage.
On the night of August 11, 1997, they argued in front of friends.
The Crown says they continued to argue after they returned to their Mount Warrigal home that night and Mr Fesus then killed his wife and buried the body.
Mr Fesus' barrister, Nicole Carroll, said it would be disputed that the relationship was fractured.
"He did not kill his wife. He did not bury her. He did not return to uncover her," Ms Carroll said in her opening address.
"He had no motive to kill his wife."
Ms Carroll said that for 16 years Mr Fesus had repeatedly denied any involvement in his wife's murder.
The jury heard Mr Fesus was charged in July 2013 after he confessed to a police officer during an investigation that he had killed his wife by "choking her out" in their lounge room.
"I strangled her from behind. I was holding her. It wasn't a struggle or anything," he allegedly said.
"She did say she was going to leave me ... and I'd never see them again. No one can take my family off me."
The details of the confession cannot be published for legal reasons. However Ms Carroll cautioned the jury about the "reliability of this said confession".
Ms Carroll said any inconsistencies in the accounts given by Mr Fesus to police in the years since 1997 could be explained away by "the passage of time and the process he has been through".
The trial before Justice Helen Wilson continues.
