Jail Term Increased For Woman Who Prostituted Daughter
AFijian-born woman who forced her underage daughter into prostitution about 1000 times over a period of 18 months has had her prison sentence increased. Kasmeer Lata, 36, was sentenced to six years and 11 months’ earlier this year, but on Wednesday the Court of Appeal increased that to a sentence of 10 years and three months’ imprisonment.
The Solicitor-General had appealed the sentence after Justice Matthew Muir sentenced the woman in April.
In its decision, the Court of Appeal ruled the offending was serious enough to warrant an increase in the sentence.
“The sexual exploitation in this case was both intensive and prolonged... It necessitated high and continuous levels of premeditation and planning.” The Court found that Justice Muir had wrongly determined where the offending sat on a scale of seriousness.
“In our view, the gravity of Ms Lata’s offending is not to be discounted for the purposes of identification of a starting point on account of the fact there was only one victim in the person of her only daughter. “Nor in weighing comparative seriousness should the mere presence of an act or threat of physical violence tip the scales against the scenario where a young woman is psychologically compelled to endure 18 months and 1000 episodes of unwanted sexual activity.” Justice Brendan Brown, Justice Patricia Courtney and Justice Sarah Katz ruled that the offending was the “most serious”.
“It is our conclusion that the totality of the aggravating circumstances of Ms Lata’s offending places this case squarely within the category of the most serious of cases.”
The Court also quashed the minimum period of imprisonment of three years and five months and substituted it with a minimum period of five years imprisonment.
The victim and Lata arrived in New Zealand in 2014 on visitor visas from Fiji.
Towards the end of that year Lata met Avneesh Sehgal and they entered into a relationship. Shortly after they began their relationship they moved into a house in Papatoetoe in south Auckland and Lata asked the victim if she would work as a prostitute in order to raise money for the family to start a business and to have food to eat.
The daughter initially refused. Lata told her they would starve and would be homeless and she would only have to sell herself for sex for one month. Sehgal and Lata advertised the girl in the
as one of two “HOT SEXY busty Indian girls” and said she was 18 years old. She was only 14 at the time. Those advertisements were paid by Sehgal.
On the victim’s 15th birthday, she was sold for sex for the first time.
She was dressed up in a short skirt, had her hair straightened and had make-up applied, court documents show.
Despite continually expressing she did not want to go through with the arrangement, her own mother coached her on how to have sex.
A man paid $200 to have sex that day and he then became a regular at the home, arriving every two weeks to have sex with the teen.
As Lata did not have a valid New Zealand visa, she was unable to open a bank account and therefore Sehgal’s bank account was used to deposit all of the cash earnings.
Her mother continued to organise men to come to their home.
When neighbours started to get suspicious that the house was operating as a brothel, the family moved to Takanini, court documents show.
Sehgal and Lata continued to arrange “appointments” for the victim, but this time it would be in motels or clients’ homes.
During this time, the victim was also photographed by New Zealand Girls - an online escort agency. The victim was required to undress and put oil on her body.
Those photos were then put online and she was advertised as “Tipsy”. Those advertisements were paid for by Sehgal and he deposited money into the New Zealand Girls account three times.
In the 18-month-period the teen was forced to be a sex slave, she was sold about 1000 times or about five times a day.
She made about $100,000 in earnings, most of which was kept by Sehgal and Lata.