Phoney degree 'magnificent fake' court told

Rebecca Li in the dock at the Auckland District Court. Picture / Kenny Rodger

A woman accused of a counterfeiting racket involving bogus degrees, tax invoices and immigration stamps says dishonest employees were behind the scam.

Auckland businesswoman Rebecca Li faces 51 fraud, forgery and counterfeiting charges relating to the production of bogus tertiary degrees, certificates, corporate seals and stamps, over seven years from 1997.

The 35-year-old director of Reddix Productions in Grey Lynn is also accused of creating fraudulent immigration stamps, tax invoices and two Queensland driver licences.

Li, who is on trial in the Auckland District Court, denies the charges and yesterday, through her lawyer David Young, blamed the offending on dishonest employees.

Mr Young said the Crown "wants someone to blame", and insisted Li had been falsely charged.

Items found during a June 2004 raid on Reddix's Crummer Rd offices - which doubled as Li's home - included "bang-on" fakes of university qualifications, including one phoney Auckland University degree described by prosecutor Bruce Northwood as "a magnificent fake".

"It's just waiting for the name to go on," he said.

It is alleged that counterfeit material and moulds for producing permanent resident stamps and fraudulent English language certificates were also discovered.

"If you have got the stamp, you can just [use it] more than once ... and all manner of people can end up coming into the country."

Many of the items recovered could be "quite harmful" in the wrong hands, Mr Northwood said.

Aside from its legitimate operations, Reddix was "in the business of commercial, professional, detailed crime".

"It was a criminal business because Rebecca Li was indulging in criminal behaviour through her business ... the manufacture of forged official documents," he said.

But not all forgeries were works of art. Investigators also found a number of partially completed or botched attempts to create documents, the court was told.

Li's alleged forgeries included certificates and assorted paperwork for a number of New Zealand's largest educational institutions, including Auckland, Waikato, Victoria and Massey Universities, Auckland University of Technology, Otago University and Unitec.

Police also allege they found birth certificates, passport images, Higher School Certificate documents and a $1000 Westpac cheque on computers at the address.

The trial is expected to finish next week.