Accounting role gone for exploiter

Aparoled businesswoman who, along with her husband, exploited migrant workers at their Auckland sweets shop has lost her chartered accountant’s membership for bringing the profession into disrepute.

Nafisa Ahmed was charged alongside her partner, Mohammed Atiqul Islam, by Immigration New Zealand in 2018 after it was discovered the Bengali couple were exploiting workers at Royal Sweets and Cafe in Sandringham.

Both were imprisoned in May last year after paying their employees as little as $6 an hour and failing to pay them for all of the hours they worked, or for any holiday pay.

It was described by a judge as “a kind of economic slavery”.

The pair, who are both New Zealand citizens, were also charged but found not guilty of human trafficking at a lengthy Auckland District Court trial. It was one of only a handful of human trafficking prosecutions in New Zealand’s legal history.

But the fallout for Ahmed, who was granted parole from her two years and six months’ jail sentence in May, continues with a decision released to the Herald yesterday by the Disciplinary Tribunal of the New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants.

The tribunal charged Ahmed, who is in her 30s, with bringing the profession into disrepute after her conviction on seven exploitation charges.

A hearing on June 24 was held via Zoom but Ahmed did not attend, provide any submissions, or enter a plea to the charge so the hearing proceeded on a formal proof basis.

However, she did advise the tribunal she didn’t want to pursue accounting as her career path.

“In the tribunal’s view, the nature of [Ahmed’s] offending both reflects on her fitness to practise accountancy and tends to bring the profession into disrepute,” the decision reads. “The tribunal notes that in the court’s view, the employees suffered grievously as a result of [ Ahmed’s] activities. The tribunal also notes the judge’s comments that [ Ahmed] did not take any responsibility for her offending and the judgment further notes that she has shown no remorse.”

Along with terminating Ahmed’s membership, it also removed her name from the register of members.

Ahmed was further ordered to pay hearing costs of $6545.

Ahmed and Islam’s offending was uncovered after two of the chefs at the cafe, also known as the Royal Bengal Cafe, made complaints to NZ authorities about their working conditions.

In May, Islam lost his appeal against his four years and five months’ prison sentence.