A scam marriage broker's efforts to return to Christchurch for her sentencing on fraud charges have been scuppered after immigration refused to let her fly in from Australia.
Li Jun Xue tried to board a flight in Sydney last week, but her lawyer said she was turned around at the airport after Australian authorities were told New Zealand immigration would not let her enter the country because of her conviction – the one she is due to be sentenced for.
Xue, 60, was meant to be sentenced in the Christchurch District Court on Wednesday on a charge of obtaining $35,000 by deception from a Wellington man for a marriage deal involving another woman.
She was convicted at a judge-alone trial before Judge Tom Gilbert in June and was allowed to return to Australia, where she now lives, while she was on bail awaiting sentencing.
The former Christchurch woman has paid the $35,000 reparations to the court, and it has been paid to the victim, and two of her previous sentencing dates were adjourned after she sent messages saying she was too ill to travel.
At the last call of the case in November, Gilbert said an arrest warrant would be issued if she did not turn up a third time.
That warrant would have been issued today, but the case has just been put on hold while immigration decides what will happen next.
Before the scheduled appearance, defence counsel Alister James told the court what had happened. He had a copy of the airline ticket Xue had booked to fly from Sydney.
James pointed out that the conviction that is stopping her entering New Zealand is the one she is due to be sentenced for.
He said his client was told by authorities that she needed a New Zealand visa. She had now applied for one, but immigration told her it would take five weeks to process.
The third sentencing date will be rescheduled to sometime after that.
Xue's trial was told the Wellington man had answered an advertisement offering a 45-year-old Singaporean woman for companionship and possible marriage, which appeared in The Dominion Post on June 26, 2016.
The man contacted Xue who arranged for him to meet "Jessica".
Jessica turned out to be Malaysian and already married. The victim was told a divorce could be arranged if he paid another $10,000.
The police prosecution said Xue knew Jessica was married. They produced a marriage certificate showing Xue and a man described as her husband had been witnesses at Jessica's wedding to an Australian man in Wollongong, Australia, on September 21, 2012.
Gilbert convicted Xue after hearing evidence from the victim, bank officers and a police witness. He found Xue had received some or possibly all of the $35,000 proceeds from the scam.
The victim told the court he was devastated to discover that Jessica's immigration status was not what Xue had told him and then that she was already married.
Source: stuff
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