A former restaurant business director masquerading as an immigration adviser deceived an employee into paying him thousands of dollars.
The foreign worker believed his payments were going towards the resident visa he sought.
Instead, Halil Anil Akbaba was channelling the money into a business account, before transferring it to a TAB betting account, and then depositing it back into the business account to conceal its origin, police said.
His actions were undone the day the immigration adviser whose name he had been using in a fake email account walked into the kebab restaurant by coincidence, and she and the worker spoke.
“That’s when she learned someone had been using her name to communicate with him,” Judge Jo Rielly said.
Akbaba has now been sentenced to community detention and community work on representative charges of obtaining by deception and engaging in money laundering transaction, after his application for a discharge without conviction was declined.
Judge Rielly condemned Akbaba’s behaviour, and his efforts afterwards to soften the blow of any conviction on his future prospects.
“Your actions exploited his [the worker’s] vulnerability in circumstances where he had no social support,” she told Akbaba, who stood sweating in the dock of the Nelson District Court.
Judge Rielly said it was “concerning offending behaviour” in that it “struck at the heart” of New Zealand’s immigration process, and immigrants’ trust in the country.
The victim, a Turkish national, was employed at the time by Akbaba and his cousin to work in their Turkish restaurants in Richmond and Blenheim, according to the police summary of facts.
Defence lawyer Steven Zindel said Akbaba was no longer a director of the company that ran the business, and was currently unemployed.
He added that while the charges as outlined included money laundering, which made Akbaba’s actions sound “highly organised”, it was simply a “transfer of funds”, some of which he had since paid back.
“In short, the defendant did something that was odd for him, with no previous [criminal] history and as someone with good community support,” Zindel said.
Police said at sentencing that it was serious offending that involved a high degree of breach of trust.
Akbaba, 32, was supposed to have supported the worker in his application to become a New Zealand resident.
In July 2022, he created a fictitious email address, purporting to be the licensed immigration adviser, whom the worker had used in the past.
Akbaba contacted him using the fake email address and offered to help with obtaining his residence visa, police said.
The worker believed he was communicating with the legitimate adviser and replied.
An agreement was created whereby Akbaba, still purporting to be the adviser, would act on the worker’s behalf, but he would need to transfer money to an account to “expedite the process”.
Police said “numerous communications” between the pair about the visa application and further requests for money happened between July 2022 and April 2023.
However, no immigration services were ever provided to the worker for the $4809 he paid Akbaba in eight instalments.
The police summary said money was paid into Akbaba’s business account, Omer Turkish Kebabs Ltd, of which he was the sole director at the time.
Once the money was paid, he immediately transferred the payments into a TAB betting account, in amounts of $500 or less, between July 14 and November 2, 2022.
Akbaba later told police “he couldn’t bear” the thought of telling the victim that his visa would be declined.
Judge Rielly said in declining his application for a discharge without conviction that Akbaba had essentially asked the court, by his evidence, to accept that he always intended to help the primary victim.
“None of that makes any sense to the court, whatsoever,” she said.
Judge Rielly said Akbaba’s apology letters to each victim, including the immigration adviser, were focused squarely on himself.
She noted the worker had refused to accept the apology and neither victim had engaged in the Restorative Justice process.
Judge Rielly said that while the amount of money obtained was not a significant amount, it was a lot for the worker, as was the breach of trust.
“I accept the police submission that your purported motivation to assist him, is nonsensical, given what you in fact did.”
Judge Rielly said it could not be ignored that Akbaba had impersonated an immigration officer who had a professional standing in the community.
She noted Akbaba’s desire to work in the financial sector, and in helping the expat Turkish community with finance and applications.
Judge Rielly said there was an “uncomfortableness” aligned with that submission, which at worst was a “concerning irony”.
She noted there was a real, appreciable risk that any future employment could be impacted by a conviction, but the court could not ignore the public interest in knowing if he was a suitable person to be engaged in such activities.
From a starting point of 18 months in prison, after discounts for guilty pleas and $5800 in reparation already paid to Restorative Justice, Akbaba was sentenced to six months’ community detention and 100 hours’ community work.
He was also ordered to pay the balance of his total $10,000 reparation offer to the primary victim.
