New Zealand immigration advisor loses license after professional misconduct

An Auckland-based immigration advisor has been judged guilty of professional misconduct for demanding fees he was not owed and refusing to return a client’s passport.

Richard Uday Prakash was stripped of his license by the Immigration Advisors Complaints and Disciplinary Tribunal, fined the sum of NZ$2,500 and disallowed from reapplying for a license for two years. The tribunal found Prakash guilty of serious professional misconduct in that he had claimed money not due to him and withheld his client’s passport.

The tribunal was told that the client complainant was aware his visa was about to expire, and had booked a flight to Fiji in order to comply with immigration regulations. Shortly before his flight was due, Prakash refused to hand back his passport, saying that monies due to him were still unpaid.

The complainant tried for two hours to repossess his passport without success, finally calling the police and making a formal compliant to the Immigration Advisors Authority. At the hearing, the tribunal found Prakash’s behaviour intolerable, stating that it had prevented his client’s intention of fulfilling his legal obligations by leaving when his visa ran out.

The hearing also established that Prakash was not entitled to the fee he had demanded. According to the New Zealand Herald, the spokesman for the tribunal added that Prakash’s professional misconduct had been aggravated by his demanding a fee not due to him in and refusing to release the passport until it was paid.