A man has been sentenced to nine months’ home detention for orchestrating a fraudulent immigration scheme where he created fake jobs to trick officials into accepting visa applications.
Umesh Patel, a 59-year-old New Zealand citizen, was sentenced at the Waitakere District Court yesterday after pleading guilty to 37 charges related to creating false employment arrangements to support visa applications for foreign nationals.
Initially, some of the businesses Patel used to run the scheme were legitimate, but he later used them to fabricate jobs and submit fraudulent documents to Immigration New Zealand.
Applicants were required to pay Patel between $10,000 and $30,000 for his services.
“They were instructed to deposit money into company accounts under the guise of business income, which Patel then returned to them as wages, less PAYE deductions, to create the illusion of genuine employment,” Immigration NZ said.
“These falsified transactions were used to mislead Immigration NZ and support visa approvals.”
Patel was assisted by associates and other individuals who had previously obtained residency through the fraudulent scheme. This group was registered as “directors” of the companies Patel was using.
Immigration NZ said the individuals had limited, or no, actual control over the businesses – whereas Patel maintained operational oversight and decision-making authority.
“This approach enabled him to conceal his involvement and broaden the scope of the offending,” INZ said.
Following an INZ investigation, Patel was accused of 21 counts of providing false or misleading information to an Immigration Officer and 16 counts of forgery.
After pleading guilty, he was sentenced to nine months’ home detention with six months’ post-detention conditions.
Immigration NZ was assessing the immigration status of those affected by the scheme.
Steve Watson, general manager of immigration compliance and investigations, described Patel’s scheme as “calculated” and “exploitative”, undermining the integrity of the immigration system.
“While some of the individuals involved may have performed limited work, in many cases, there was never any intention to provide real employment. This type of offending is serious and will not be tolerated.”
