James Mcleod Bennett has been sentenced in the Hawera District Court to 3 years imprisonment. Judge Gregory Hikaka gave Bennett a 25% credit for his guilty plea and a 3-month discount for his age. The final sentence was 12 months home detention with 6 months of post detention conditions.

Bennett previously pleaded guilty to 5 charges under sections 142 and 345 of the Immigration Act 2009 as well as section 228 of the Crimes Act 1961, each carrying a maximum penalty of 7 years imprisonment, a fine of $100,000, or both. The charges related to:

• Bennett obtaining and using a British passport in his brother's identity which he procured by providing a photo of himself instead of his brother to the UK Passport office.
• Using the same passports to obtain New Zealand Residence Visas to facilitate his travel in and out of New Zealand under his brother's identity.
• Obtaining fraudulent New Zealand Driver Licence and New Zealand bank account in his brother's identity.

Bennett travelled overseas 5 times over 17 years using the fraudulently passports and visas. Most recently, returning to the UK. He also transited through countries such as Fiji, Australia, Malaysia, and Thailand. Bennett was able to travel to countries which would not have permitted his entry if they had known about his background.

National Manager Investigations, Stephanie Greathead, says Bennett knew exactly how the immigration and border systems worked and he chose to manipulate and exploit it.

"Bennett's offending was carefully orchestrated to evade detection by Immigration and Border Officials around the world. The fraudulently obtained passport from Great Britain bore his own photo, meaning any face to passport verification would not raise suspicion as to his true identity."

"With assistance from NZ Customs Service and our border team, we were able to intercept Bennett at the border upon his arrival into New Zealand on his fraudulently obtained passport".

Bennett had access to legitimate identity documents belonging to his brother including his birth certificate, expired passports, and drivers licences which made it easier for him to obtain genuine identity documents from authorities.

"Bennett's actions undermine the integrity of the immigration and border systems, and we take this type of offending very seriously. His conviction is a strong warning to anyone considering using another person's identity, even if it is a family member."

MBIE encourages anyone who is aware of immigration fraud to report it immediately. Cases can be reported to MBIE's contact centre on 0800 20 90 20 or to police or anonymously to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.