Michael James Sloan<\/a> were sentenced in Auckland’s High Court for their roles in enabling Brazilian nationals to work as sex workers while in the country on temporary visas. <\/p>\nThe pair acted as booking agents for the 15 sex workers, and arranged advertising and handled customer communication for the women.<\/p>\n
At the time, Sloan and his co-defendant pleaded guilty to a representative charge of aiding and abetting individuals to breach conditions of their visas, and were sentenced to 10 months’ home detention. <\/p>\n
That followed several years’ work as part of a significant joint investigation involving New Zealand police and Immigration New Zealand investigators. <\/p>\n
As a result, the Courts found the offenders had derived more than $1.2 million in unlawful benefit from the offending, and ordered the forfeiture of two residential properties, a boat, cash holdings and vehicle sale proceeds under the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act 2009.<\/p>\n
The High Court found the offending undermined New Zealand’s immigration system, enabled unlawful financial gain, and exposed migrant workers to an increased risk of exploitation.<\/p>\n
Police Asset Recovery Unit Specialist Investigator Bede Arbuckle said the seizure of assets was valued at approximately $1.05 million. <\/p>\n
“Criminal proceeds recovery is about ensuring people cannot profit from unlawful activity. When offenders lose the assets and wealth gained through crime, it sends a clear message that illegal enterprises do not pay,” Arbuckle said. <\/p>\n
“The forfeiture order and seizure of assets reflects the continued commitment of police and partner agencies to identify, restrain and recover assets linked to significant criminal activity,” he added. <\/p>\n
Immigration NZ’s national investigations manager Jason Perry said he hoped outcomes such as these deterred others from becoming involved in similar offending. <\/p>\n
He said removing the financial incentives of crime enables authorities to disrupt criminal enterprises, protect vulnerable people and safeguard the integrity of New Zealand’s immigration and regulatory systems.<\/p>\n
The morning’s headlines in 90 seconds including dozens dead in a Spanish train crash, axe wielding robbers hit an Upper Hutt dairy, and how voters differ from political parties on issues. (Source: Breakfast)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More than $1.05 million in assets have been seized by police following a years-long investigation into unlawful sex…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":644326,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[51,28708,67,42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-644325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-auckland","tag-central-south-america","tag-crime-and-justice","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644325","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=644325"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644325\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/644326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=644325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=644325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=644325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}