Man faces immediate arrest after misleading Immigration NZ

File photo / NZ Herald

A man found guilty of misleading Immigration New Zealand faces immediate arrest and to two years' imprisonment should he return to the country.

Kamal Kishore, a New Zealand citizen, was sentenced at Auckland District Court today despite not currently being in the country.

He had previously been found guilty of 13 charges of misleading an immigration officer.

Kishore's co-offender, New Zealand resident Prem Adeep Singh, was found guilty of two charges and was sentenced to 120 hours' community service and ordered to pay $1500 in reparation to his victims.

The offending took place while Kishore was employed at an Auckland recruitment company which provided an employment search service to foreign nationals wanting to work in New Zealand.

Singh was a licensed immigration adviser at the time, working out of an adjoining immigration consultancy business.

The pair worked together to create false documents which they submitted to Immigration New Zealand (INZ) in support of work visa applications for their clients.

The clients either had no knowledge of the documents or did not know that they were fraudulent.

INZ's national fraud and compliance manager Bill Naik said the sentences are a great result, particularly given the unusual circumstances of one of the defendants not being in New Zealand.

"The offending in this case was deliberate and premeditated and involved significant breaches of trust.

"The sentences imposed reflect the seriousness of the offending. This is an excellent result from what has been a lengthy and complex investigation."