A Christchurch recruitment consultant has been sentenced to 20 months in jail and ordered to pay more than $18,000 in reparations for defrauding foreign workers and using their money for gambling.
Craig Lawerence Dunn, 40, who worked for Canstaff, pleaded guilty to 19 charges over the more than $20,000 fraud in the Christchurch District Court.
Police say most of Dunn's victims were foreign nationals who arrived in New Zealand on working holidays.
Dunn took cash payments for immigration and visa fees as well as enrolments fees for work-related courses that clients were never enrolled in.
He also took money for a bond to rent a property for a client even though Dunn didn't own the property and had no permission to rent it.
The client never moved in or saw the property and the money hasn't been recovered.
Defence lawyer Glenn Dixon says his client, who gambled away the money, "wants to work to repay his complainant victims in a meaningful way".
Mr Dixon added that Dunn had been offered full time employment in landscaping with the intentions of being proactive with reparations to those affected.
Canstaff repaid money to 17 workers who were affected by the actions of Dunn.
Newshub.
