Trio jailed for hiring illegal foreigners

Three men have been sentenced to jail in the Napier District Court for using illegal foreign workers in the horticulture and viticulture industries.

Michael Wauchop Porter, 53, Miles Elliott, 45 and Dharminder Singh, 42, were each jailed for three years, while a fourth man, Surjit Singh, 62 - Dharminder's father - was sentenced to nine months' home detention.

The men are among a group of 18 people being prosecuted by the Department of Labour for immigration fraud, and had admitted to conspiring for material benefit to aid and abet foreign nationals to stay and work in New Zealand unlawfully.

Immigration NZ has investigated illegal employment of foreign workers in Hawkes Bay, Nelson and Marlborough over the past three years, and 28 contractors and employers have been investigated.

Labour Department group manager Glenys Robinson said the jailed men were directors of a labour supply company, Contract Labour Services, which employed 500 people throughout the country.

It is believed that at its peak, the company was running an illegal workforce of about 600, and arranged for illegal workers from Asian countries including Thailand, China, Vietnam and India to work in the horticulture and viticulture industries.

It was placed into liquidation by its parent company, Allied Work Force Group, in 2006.

The workers were either overstayers, shipjumpers or working in breach of visitor or student permits.

The Crown said different means were used to pay the workers - including engaging false subcontractors and creating fake invoices for work done so that names of the illegal workers were not recorded on the payroll. It is believed that the total weekly amount of false invoices could have been over $100,000 during the peak season.

"The illegal workers, by virtue of being paid usually in cash and without payslips and being unable to complain due to their status, were vulnerable to exploitation," the Crown's document said.

"Supervisors at times underpaid them and even at times paid them less than the minimum wage but this was not necessarily with the knowledge of the accused."

In 2006, company supervisor Adrianus Komalig, an Indonesian national, was jailed for 18 months for enticing Indonesian shipjumpers to work for the company.

Supervisor Thu Huynh, a Vietnamese, was jailed for 27 months in 2007 for enticing Vietnamese seamen to jump ship and another, Ut Danh, was sentenced to 21 months' detention for charging workers for rent and transport, and then deducting "tax" from their wages.

Thu Huynh recruited fellow Vietnamese from Korean fishing boats at Lyttelton, charging them up to $700 each for finding them work on vineyards, orchards and farms and Ut Danh would charge them for transport and accommodation.

Immigration first launched major investigations into illegal labour in 2003, and prosecuted Malaysian couple Heng Lee and Koi Hen and their daughter, Kheng Lay Chua, for smuggling illegal workers to work in vineyards. They were jailed and deported.

Ms Robinson said the latest sentencing sent a "clear message" that such offences would not be tolerated.

"Immigration NZ will investigate and prosecute activities that undermine the integrity of the immigration systems," she said.

"Stamping out this sort of offending is in the best interests primarily of the New Zealand workforce who have first right to these jobs, and our recognised seasonal employer scheme, which was developed specifically to ensure we have enough legal workers to meet seasonal requirements."

BEFORE THE COURT

Guilty

Michael Porter, Miles Elliot and Dharminder Singh jailed for 3 years, Surjit Singh sentenced to 9 months' home detention.

Charge

Conspiring for material benefit to aid and abet foreign nationals to stay and work in New Zealand unlawfully.

Investigations

Immigration investigated 28 contractors and employers - 18 people prosecuted.