28 JUNE 2017

Chinese national sentenced for immigration fraud

A 49 year old Chinese national unlawfully working as a builder in New Zealand has been sentenced to 2 years’ imprisonment for immigration fraud.

Zi Xiang Lin was sentenced at Hamilton District Court on a charge under the Immigration Act 1987 relating to providing a false passport.

Immigration New Zealand (INZ) Assistant General Manager Peter Devoy says Lin has been in New Zealand since 2005 when he entered New Zealand from Fiji on a false Hong Kong passport. In 2017 he was located on a Hamilton residential building site and detained by INZ after he gave a false identity. He subsequently provided INZ with information on his genuine identity. After the passport was recovered INZ determined that the identity page had been tampered with.

INZ received confirmation from the Hong Kong authorities that the Hong Kong passport was reported lost in 2009 and that the photograph, name and date of birth had been altered on the passport.

Mr Devoy says. “We will not tolerate anyone committing immigration fraud and today’s sentence is a strong deterrent.”

More details of the circumstances that led to the INZ charges being laid are contained in the attached summary of facts.

http://img.scoop.co.nz/media/pdfs/1706/SUMMARY_OF_FACTS_Zi_Xiang_LIN.pdf

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