Danette Cole<\/a> asked about the new builds.<\/p>\n\u201cTwo and a half to three months,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
During his employment, the man had an intimate relationship with a woman that would occur in the store. Some of the interactions were allegedly caught on camera.<\/p>\n
At some stage, Patel\u2019s associate Chirag Mangukiya, allegedly came to the store and then left.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe came for some sort of hour or so then he came back and he said he forgot his cell phone. I see he left it on the counter facing down and I flipped it and I seen the screen was recording and at that time I became concerned he purposely left the phone to record,\u201d the man told the court.<\/p>\n
The employee grabbed Mangukiya\u2019s phone and asked him why he was recording and noticed he had other files on his phone.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe said you better talk to Patel,\u201d the employee said.<\/p>\n
![\"Coin]()
Coin Saver Onerahi where the men helped build the store until 2am, unpaid. Photo \/ Google Maps<\/p>\n
The employee was concerned the footage would be leaked and he would bring shame to his family. He said, Patel eventually used it as blackmail.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery now and then he would say \u2018you should know what I know about you. So you keep working or there\u2019s trouble\u2019,\u201d the man said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was thinking I had to work as much as I can otherwise I was scared if something goes out, it might be very hard for me to live in New Zealand,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He said he worked from 8am until 8pm every day and would often have to eat his lunch at the front counter unless a customer came in.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe store would close at 8 and I would have to clean and restock and that would take another hour,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He said when MBIE began their investigation in 2019, Patel allegedly told his staff not to talk to them.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew Mr Patel was watching on the cameras,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u2018I was very scared\u2019<\/p>\n
After the employee left Coin Saver, Patel showed up at his new workplace allegedly angry about the MBIE investigation and threatened him with intimate footage said to have been passed to him by Mangukiya.<\/p>\n
The CCTV was played in court. <\/p>\n
\u201cI was very scared,\u201d the man said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe started talking about he\u2019s holding something against me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Patel then came closer to the man and showed him the footage on his phone.<\/p>\n
The man said Patel allegedly said: \u201cLook how many things I\u2019m having that I hold this against you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Under cross-examination, defence lawyer William Nabney put to the witness the visa he was on did not require a written employment agreement.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot at that time no,\u201d he responded.<\/p>\n
Nabney said when the employee was shown the back room, he was told it was rent-free and there was wifi.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd that was to benefit you?\u201d Nabney asked<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nabney said Patel fed him for free for three years, which he denied, and he was free to leave the store during the day if someone else was available on the counter.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, that never happened,\u201d the man said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou weren\u2019t there 12 hours a day were you?\u201d Nabney asked<\/p>\n
\u201cI was mainly there 12 hours by myself, yes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nabney pressed the witness on whether he understood the MBIE calculations for what staff were allegedly owed. \u201cI don\u2019t know anything,\u201d the man replied.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou weren\u2019t working seven days a week, were you?\u201d Nabney asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was.\u201d<\/p>\n
Further employees are expected to give evidence as the trial continues.<\/p>\n
Shannon Pitman is a Whang\u0101rei-based reporter for Open Justice covering courts in the Te Tai Tokerau region. She is of Ng\u0101puhi\/ Ng\u0101ti P\u016bkenga descent and has worked in digital media for the past five years. She joined NZME in 2023.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fifteen charges of exploitation of migrant workers have been laid against the business, with Patel himself facing an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":507693,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[7818,10633,19473,2740,21418,5603,111,43,139,69,1118,2738,95022,192767,250772,18937,61,12767],"class_list":["post-507692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-allegedly","tag-coin","tag-footage","tag-former","tag-intimate","tag-leak","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-owner","tag-patel","tag-saver","tag-snehal","tag-threatened","tag-to","tag-worker"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=507692"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507692\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/507693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=507692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=507692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=507692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}