Immigration fraud puts Fijian in jail

A Fijian woman faces jail and deportation after being convicted on multiple immigration frauds.

Kamla Wati, 59, tried and failed several times to get into New Zealand and was eventually granted a visa under an alias. She stayed for eight months before she was tracked down by Immigration staff and police.

Wati was yesterday sentenced to 19 months’ jail after admitting three charges of providing false or misleading information to an immigration officer in respect of visa applications and one charge of producing a fraudulently obtained passport.

The Hamilton District Court heard that Wati visited New Zealand from Fiji three times between September 2009 and March 2012. She applied for residency but failed and numerous visitor visa applications were declined on character grounds.

Wati’s return in 2015 was initially undetected because she used a fraudulently obtained passport under the alias “Rukhmanny”.

Wati’s lawyer, Jarom Keung, said she had persisted in getting into the country to help a family member who was being abused and who also had mental health issues.

Wati also had serious health issues from being in prison, he said.

Through Keung, Wati’s family hoped she would get home detention but Judge Simon Menzies agreed with Immigration NZ counsel Aaron McIlroy that the offending was serious and needed to be deterred.

McIlroy said Wati had a sense of entitlement and still protested her innocence over six shoplifting convictions for which she was also sentenced yesterday. Once Wati has served her sentence she will be deported to Fiji. — Belinda Feek