September 4 2007

Immigration Agent's Sentence Sends Clear Message

The sentence handed down today to an Auckland immigration agent sends a clear message that bending immigration rules will not be tolerated, Department of Labour Investigations Manager Carl Manning said.

Romney Lavea was sentenced at Auckland District Court to two years and seven months' imprisonment after being found guilty of arranging forged job offers for his clients, and using these forged documents in immigration applications.

Mr Lavea, a 38 year-old New Zealand citizen, was found guilty of four charges under Section 266 of the Crimes Act 1961 (using a forged document), and 20 charges under the Immigration Act 1987 (supplying false information to the Department of Labour).

"The majority of these offences took place in 2003 and 2004. Mr Lavea arranged false offers of employment in order to satisfy criteria for residence applications under the General Skills category (now the Skilled Migrant Category). He charged his clients - mostly Chinese, Indian and Samoan nationals - for this service," said Mr Manning.

"Many people use immigration agents to help with the process of applying to visit, live or work in New Zealand - and the majority of these agents provide a legitimate, professional service.

"Unfortunately, some take advantage of the system - and this can have real consequences on the people making applications.

"The Immigration Advisors Licensing Act, passed in April, will help tackle this problem because all people giving immigration advice will need to be licensed.

"To obtain and hold a licence, advisers must meet competency standards and be 'fit' to practise. This includes consideration of any previous convictions.

"The Department takes immigration fraud extremely seriously. In addition to launching 19 consultant fraud prosecutions in the last five years, the Department has seen 220 people convicted for providing false qualifications, job offers or other misleading information. Some of these people were acting informally as agents when carrying out this work," Mr Manning said.

For more information on the Immigration Advisors Licensing Act, see:
http://www.immigration.govt.nz/migrant/general/generalinformation/news/n ewlaw.htm

ENDS

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