Hawke's Bay contractor denies fabricating evidence for court case

Gurpreet Singh denies employing the four Indonesian men at the centre of an Immigration Act case. Photo / NZME

Farm labour supply contractor Gurpreet Singh has denied he fabricated evidence to help him in a court case involving four Indonesian men working in vineyards without visas.

Singh and his company JJ 2016 Ltd are facing three charges each under sections of the Immigration Act that deal with breaching visas or allowing people to work in New Zealand who are not entitled to do so.

The charges have been brought to a judge-alone trial in the Hastings District Court by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE).

They refer to three out of a group of four Indonesian men who were living at a property owned by Singh in Pakipaki, Hastings, and who were found to be working in Hawke's Bay vineyards without visas in late 2019.

Singh's defence counsel Scott Jefferson has argued that the Indonesians did not work for him, but for a sub-contractor.

On Thursday, MBIE counsel Catherine Milnes queried invoices from a sub-contractor and sub-contracting agreements that had been placed before the court.

Milnes compared the dates on the invoices with the swift transfer or withdrawal of funds out of JJ 2016's bank accounts. She queried how the transactions could be processed so quickly and suggested that the invoices had been "written up for the purposes of this hearing".

Singh denied this.

Milnes said sub-contracting agreements with a company named Farm Contracts Ltd, dated November 7, 2019, and December 2, 2019, had been produced when Singh realised he was in trouble over the MBIE investigation into the Indonesians.

She noted its similarity to an agreement formerly signed with a company named Prostar.

"These documents [the contracts] are a fabrication which have been filled in to help you with this hearing," she said.

Singh denied this also.

The other signatory to the agreements, Balbir Singh, later viewed the documents in court and confirmed his signature was on them.

Gurpreet Singh said that the invoices were backed up by information that was held on file in his office, and that the sub-contracting agreements were based on a template that the company used for different sub-contractors.

Earlier, Singh gave evidence about the impact of the MBIE investigation on his business.

He said that Zespri withdrew an accreditation certificate, meaning that all JJ 2016 Ltd's kiwifruit work went to another company.

This affected the jobs of 150 to 200 people, he said. At the height of the season, JJ 2016 could employ 300 to 400.

Jefferson said he wanted to ask Singh a very clear question, and wanted to do so through an interpreter in the court so there was absolutely no doubt about what was being said.

"Did JJ 2016 employ the four Indonesian guys that we have heard about in this case?" Jefferson asked.

Through the interpreter, Singh replied: "No, we never employed [them]."