Family to be deported for vouchers fraud

A family with a young child have been ordered to leave New Zealand because the father used false addresses to claim food vouchers during the Covid-19 lockdown.

The Santos family – dad Jeffrey Pinlac, 31, mum Marjorie Aguilar, 27, and their 7-year-old son – were issued deportation liability notices in late 2020, which they appealed to the Immigration and Protection Tribunal.

According to a recently released tribunal decision, work visa holder Jeffrey Santos claimed and used $1600 of food vouchers, ‘‘to which he was not entitled’’, in April 2020.

In September, he was convicted of using a document for pecuniary advantage and was sentenced to $1600 reparation and 150 hours’ community work.

The Alexandra District Court was told Santos had applied four times to the Queenstown Lakes District Council for food vouchers provided through its Covid-19 welfare assistance scheme.

The vouchers were for people who needed help, but were not eligible for government subsidies.

Santos had previously been told he could not access the food vouchers as he lived in Cromwell, and should instead apply for assistance from the Central Otago District Council.

However, he also used four separate false addresses to get four $400 grocery vouchers from the Queenstown Lakes council.

In court, defence counsel Paige Noorland told Judge Jim Large the offending was ‘‘opportunistic’’ and Santos had needed help to feed his family.

But the judge said Santos’ offending was ‘‘quite despicable’’ and he had stolen from others who needed assistance.

Santos, a carpenter, told the tribunal he deeply regretted the offending. ‘‘He was desperate to provide for his family,’’ the decision said.

Tribunal chairman Judge Peter Spiller acknowledged the ‘‘difficult financial circumstance’’ the family found themselves in during the lockdown, but said Immigration New Zealand had been within its rights to issue deportation liability notices.

While the family had hoped to settle in New Zealand permanently, they had no ‘‘legitimate expectation of, or entitlement to’’ a future here, and their contribution to the economy had been ‘‘modest’’.

Judge Spiller declined the family’s appeal, but directed for their deportation to be delayed by three months so they could get their affairs in order before leaving.