NGAUE POPULA ONGO OFISA NGAUE IMMIGRATION KO E TOHI NIMA KAAKAA (FORGERY) PAASIPOOTI A E ONGO SIAINA Monday, March 17, 2014 - 19:00 Nukualofa, Tonga A former senior Tongan Immigration officer and a woman co-accused were jailed today, March 17, for the attempted forgery of two Tongan passports. Oto Tu‘itupou and Sofia Laukau were sentenced by Mr Justice Charles Cato in the Nuku‘alofa Supreme Court. “Corrupt scams of this kind go the heart and impugn the integrity and security of Tonga’s passport regime and machinery of border control…. Offending of this kind has potential to bring into disrepute Tonga in the eyes of foreign countries,” said the judge, in considering a maximum sentence as a starting point. Tu‘itupou a former Senior Immigration Officer at the Immigration Division of Tonga’s Ministry of Immigration and Trade had pleaded guilty to one count of attempted conversion by a government civil servant. He will serve two-years and six-months imprisonment at Huatolitoli Prison effective today. Laukau who pleaded guilty to attempted forgery of the Tongan passports, immediately will serve one-year and three-months imprisonment. The offending had taken place in Nuku‘alofa on June 7, 2013 where Tu‘itupou had given Laukau two blank Tongan passports to find someone who could forge them by inserting the personal details and photos of two men who were Chinese nationals. Sofia Laukau at the Nukualofa Supreme Court. March 2014. Joint-enterprise Mr Justice Cato said Tu‘itupou had attempted to convert to the use of others two blank passports worth $172.40 from the Immigration Division. He said the circumstances of the offending were serious as Tu‘itupou was a senior officer and long term employee who was involved in a joint unlawful enterprise with Laukau and possibly others to obtain false passports. “He obtained and gave the uncompleted passports to Laukau whose role was to arrange with a third party to insert photographs and details of Chinese nationals into the passports. “Ms Laukau gave the photographs to a third party promising her between $5,000 to $10,000 for her part in the scam but the third party instead acted as a whistle blower and informed the police,” said the Judge. The judge said Tu‘itupou told Laukau she would get $1500 for her role in securing the false passports. Laukau had said she was co-opted into the scheme by a person whom she had formed an association with since returning to Tonga from the United States in 2006 and for whom she had worked. “I do not know how much Mr Tu‘itupou expected to gain for his role in this corrupt scheme, or for that matter Ms Laukau but I infer that for a government employee of reasonably senior rank to become involved it must have been reasonably substantial,” said the Judge. “He has been involved in a very serious breach of trust.” “The offending is serious and I was informed by Crown Counsel Sione Sisifa that this may be the first case for sentence involving an attempt by a government officer to secure a false passport,” he said. Justice Cato said Tuitupou was charged only with attempt, perhaps generously because it seems he did secure and hand over the incomplete passports which would appear to have completed the offence of conversion they being intended to eventually become the property of the Chinese nationals once they had been forged with false identities. Although the corrupt object was exposed and frustrated his role was complete, he said. Oto Tu‘itupou at the Nukualofa Supreme Court. March 2014. Serious offending Justice Cato said in the case of both prisoners the offending merits starting points near maximum available for attempts. “Deterrence and denunciation of his activity and the protection of the integrity of the Tongan passport regime must be the principal sentencing considerations.” The judge in sentencing Tuitupou considered mitigating factors, which were his early guilty plea, he was remorseful and was a first time offender, and therefore reduced his sentence of four-years three-months by 12-months, to three-years and three-months. He suspended the final nine months of that sentence for two years. He said for Laukau her participation in the corrupt scheme was very serious. “Although she may have said in her remarks to her probation officer she had been seduced into committing this offending by an associate, who is not before the court I do not accept for one moment her explanation that she really did not appreciate how serious the offending was. “She was prepared to offer substantial amount of money to the person who she had asked to fraudulently complete the passports and she cannot have believed in those circumstances that she was doing did not carry risk and was other than serious offending,” he said. “Like Tu‘itupou she would seem to have succumbed to the prospect of earning easy money and that corrupted and turned her form a formerly law abiding citizen of mature years to a corrupt criminal. Her role in this corrupt enterprise is similarly serious and her sentence must act as a deterrent to others minded to enter into passport scams.” He said his starting point for her for was three-years and after her early guilty plea, expression of contrition and previous good character discounted 12-months, leaving two-years sentence. He suspended the final nine months of her sentence on the condition she commits no further offences punishable by imprisonment for two-years, which meant she serves one-year and three-months sentence. The judge commended the person who reported the matter to the police.
Posted on: Thu, 20 Mar 2014 02:28:03 +0000
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