KEY POINTS:
A Chinese man will have to sue if he wants to get back any of the $23,000 he paid to a Christchurch company director to arrange a sham marriage so that he could get New Zealand residency.
Chinese national, Jiachang Lu, received a sentence of 180 hours community work for his part in the scam and it is understood he has now been deported.
The woman involved in the scheme, Nicola Sheree Bell, was sentenced to 120 hours' community work.
But the man who arranged it, Stephen William Adams, 46, was today jailed for 16 months after admitting supplying false or misleading information to an immigration officer.
In Christchurch District Court, Judge David McDonald said the victims of the offending were all the people who were living legally in New Zealand.
He did not regard Lu - who paid the money but ended up deported - as a victim and he declined to make a reparation order.
"If he wants to sue you for the money now that he's been deported back to China, he can do that in the civil jurisdiction."
Defence counsel James Rapley said Adams became involved in a one-off transaction. He had contacts among foreigners living in New Zealand.
Lu approached him after living in New Zealand as a student and asked him for help. He arranged the sham marriage to get money to alleviate a debt problem.
The court had been told he received $17,000 and a further $6000 was paid to the woman.
Judge McDonald said Adams had supported the application for permanent residency and also provided information to the department that the couple were living with him and his wife "in blissful matrimony".
He noted that Adams was the father of a two-month-old baby and the family depended on him for emotional and financial support.
He granted leave for Adams to apply for home detention but refused to defer the start of the sentence so that he could apply before he had to begin his sentence.
- NZPA
