Overweight fraudster Romney Lavea jailed again, this time for unsanctioned immigration work

“I can’t trust what comes out of your mouth too much. You have had many opportunities to make amends for what you have done (through making amends). You didn’t take advantage of any of those opportunities.

Lavea first made headlines in 2007 after he was sentenced to two years and seven months in prison. An Auckland District Court jury found him guilty of four counts of using a forged document and 20 counts of providing false information to the Department of Labor, or MBIE, now known as the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment. The court was told that Lavea, then an immigration consultant, placed false job offers on clients’ residency applications.

However, the case gained greater attention after the verdict, when his then-lawyer Chris Comeskey argued in the Court of Appeal in Wellington that Lavea’s prison sentence should be commuted to home detention due to his health problems related to being overweight.

Comeskey described his client as weighing 600 pounds and so overweight that he couldn’t touch his feet. In prison, Lavea was unable to use the toilet or dress without assistance, the lawyer said, adding that prison management had received an “unambiguous statement” that staff would not help him comply with his hygiene requirements. He argued that these obstacles make prison sentences “disproportionately harsh.”

In its initial bail decision, issued just days after the September 2007 judgment, the Court of Appeal appeared skeptical of this argument.

“This was a serious and persistent offense by a man with previous convictions of a similar nature, which clearly required denunciation and a deterrent sentence,” the court said.

Later, however, Lavea prevailed and he was granted house arrest.

Just three months after the verdict, Lavea returned to court to plead guilty to another crime in which he and his brother stole the identities of seven dead children in order to obtain passports. The 14 charges related to falsifying documents from 1996 and 1997 were punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

“The misuse of deceased people’s identities is something we take extremely seriously,” David Philp, the Department of Home Affairs’ passport manager, said at the time, explaining that such crimes undermine New Zealand’s passport. “This reignites anxiety and grief in the families of a deceased person whose identity is being misused, often from many years ago.”

That anguish was palpable during Lavea’s sentencing hearing in February 2008, when the father of one of the stillborn children fought back tears and blamed the defendant for his wife’s untimely death.

Brian Thrussell said his first-born son Phillip died in 1960, just a day after he was born. He and wife Maxine had to relive the ordeal when they learned of identity theft in 2005, he said, explaining that his wife died just a few months later at the age of 66.

During the second sentencing hearing, the issue of Leavey’s seriousness was again raised, and his lawyer again asked for a non-custodial sentence because of the hardships he would face. Judge Elizabeth Aitken didn’t buy it. She sentenced him to two years in prison, noting that prison authorities had indicated they could meet his needs in prison.

However, after just over four months, he was granted early parole.

Thrussell was “absolutely disgusted” by the news of the decision, believing that the so-called “fat crook” had managed to get out of prison, he was later to say Sunday news.

The parole board said Lavea’s long criminal history made this decision difficult.

“Ultimately, his medical condition at this time is such that the board cannot confidently deny him parole on the grounds that he poses an undue risk to the community,” the decision said, as reported by the Sunday News. “We believe his activities may be limited due to his health condition.”

They were wrong.

Lavea was sentenced again in November 2013 – this time to house arrest – after pleading guilty to defrauding ACC between 1998 and 2011. During this period, he received weekly compensation totaling more than $37,000 after claiming he could not work due to injuries sustained in a car accident. However, as has been made clear in previous court hearings, he performed extensive work as an immigration consultant.

According to ACC, despite repeatedly declaring he had no income, documents show he submitted more than 1,000 visa and permit applications to New Zealand Immigration and traveled extensively between Samoa and New Zealand.

But it didn’t end there, Justice Thomas noted during his sentencing this week. Lavea’s current sentence spanned 2011-2023. The judge noted that he had already been charged with some of the current offenses when he reoffended while on bail.

“You didn’t care,” the judge said. “You thought you were untouchable.”

Seven victims testified against him during his July jury trial. He was found guilty of six counts of providing immigration advice without authorization and four counts of receiving remuneration or reward for illegal advice.

The court heard that Lavea advised the young woman, aged 21, to get married to help her partner obtain a visa. As a result, he was granted a visa and has since abandoned it, using the document to move to Australia, the judge was told. He suggested to another victim that her chances of obtaining a visa would increase if she adopted her children with other families.

“As a result of his advice to us, we have extended our stay in New Zealand,” the mother-of-three said this week in a victim impact statement. “It caused us a lot of stress.”

The woman, who was accompanied to court by her husband and a translator, stated that their children miss school days and sometimes do not go to hospital when they are sick due to limited finances as a result of the expensive trial.

“Our extended stay in New Zealand is not our fault,” she said. “We didn’t want to stay here illegally… We trusted him.”

Lavea’s lawyer noted that the family currently lives legally in New Zealand.

“It is accepted that he broke the law, but behind this unlawful crime there was a genuine desire to help these people,” Le’au’anae said. “Everyone was in a deep hole. Most of the time, he helped them get out of that hole.

Most of the money Lavea took from victims went directly to New Zealand Immigration application fees, the lawyer said, noting that of all seven victims, he received just $1,600 in voluntary koha, which he kept for himself. And he was willing to return the money, Le’au’anae said.

“He is not a man who wants to take advantage of the people who came to him,” he added. “He didn’t do it for commercial gain.”

Although Lavea’s previous convictions meant he was ineligible for leniency based on his previous good character, Le’au’anae urged the judge to take into account his client’s respectability in the community when considering a non-custodial sentence. He forwarded letters of support from the Pacific Leadership Forum and the Consulate General of Samoa and noted that Lavea’s likelihood of reoffending was assessed as low.

Crown prosecutor Ruby van Boheemen, however, argued that there had to be consequences for Lavea’s blatant disregard of the law again.

“These victims were very vulnerable people in relation to New Zealand… when they came to Mr Lavea,” she said. “Many of them were desperate and relied on his advice.”

She pointed to his 2008 conviction and noted that the current offense began less than two years later.

Judge Thomas agreed that the previous offense was significant and warranted a 15% increase. He noted that Lavea took special care to conceal his involvement, even going so far as to create fake email accounts in his clients’ names so that his own name could not be traced.

“They gave you their money. They gave you confidence,” the judge continued. “Who can blame them for laying many of their worries at your door?”

“It is important that the licensing system is followed,” he said, “so that the world can have faith in our… immigration standards.”

“Your actions have damaged the credibility of our immigration system as a whole,” he said. “I know it doesn’t bother you, but it bothers the country.

“The moment our immigration system loses credibility, we as a nation lose credibility. We are a nation that relies on every ounce of strength we can muster. You certainly did your best to alleviate the situation.

The judge did not agree to leniency due to remorse, but did agree to a 20% deduction due to poor health. He decided on a final sentence of two years and nine months of imprisonment.

He also ordered Lavea to repay $1,600 he received from victims in Koha, but expressed doubts whether the order would be enforced.

Craig Captain is an Auckland-based journalist covering courts and justice. He joined the Herald in 2021 and has reported on the courts since 2002 across three newsrooms in the US and New Zealand.

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