Tongan woman masquerading as an immigration advisor is charged for bilking about dozens of Tongan immigrants living in Auckland.
Khadijah Lolohea (38) who was also known as Khadijah PIU, of Mt Roskill, Auckland, will be sentenced in May 23 for 9 charges after her appearance at Auckland District Court yesterday 20th February and pleaded guilty to “providing immigration advice without a licence”.
Lolohea allegedly told some of her victims that she was employed by the Immigration New Zealand and her job was to deal with application of those who were overstayers.
In one incident she was alleged to have charged clients for up to $1000 for filing their visa application but she did not do anything at all.
When the clients called to check on the status of their application Kadijah was said to have told them that she has done the first part of their application process but needed some more money so she could be able to proceed to the next steps.
A couple suspected that Kadijah was defrauding them so they called Immigration only to find out that she was not employed by the ministry.
After an investigation conducted by the Immigration Advisers Authority Kadijah was then charged by the police.
“This is a significant result for the Immigration Advisers Authority. Victims had to trust us. They had to trust that reporting Lolohea to the Immigration Advisers Authority would not affect their visa applications. And they had to trust that, if they were in New Zealand illegally, the Authority had no power to deport them,” said the Authority Registrar Barry Smedts.
“The Immigration Advisers Authority was set up in May 2008 to regulate immigration advice internationally.
It is responsible for licensing immigration advisers, receiving complaints about licensed and unlicensed immigration advisers, investigating people giving immigration advice without a licence, maintaining a register of licensed immigration advisers”.
