Author: MIL-OSI Publisher

Source: Radio New Zealand

An immigration adviser took thousands of dollars from a migrant, in a “subterfuge” where he would pay for a fake job at her husband’s firm, a tribunal has heard.

It upheld complaints by six customers of Qian Yu, also known as Heidi Castelucci.

The Immigration Advisers Complaints and Disciplinary Tribunal said it was considering cancelling her licence and preventing her from reapplying when it ruled on sanctions next month.

She continued to work as an advisor after she was suspended in April last year, failing to submit a work visa for a Chinese man, who paid more than $1500.

“At the relevant time, she was engaged by Liberty Consulting Group Ltd trading as Liberty Immigration, of Auckland,” said the decisions. “She was also a contractor to New Zealand Language Institute and Foreign Exchange Program Ltd, of Hamilton and Auckland. Ms Yu’s husband, Toby Scott Castelucci, is a director and shareholder of both companies.”

Richard Wu, who worked for her and recorded Yu offering him residence in return for money after the company sacked him in 2024, paid an unlawful premium for his job.

The tribunal said he had paid about $22,000 which would be “extraordinarily high” if it was an immigration fee. She suggested he get paid cash-in-hand jobs alongside the fake job to hide what they were doing.

Façade

“She further told him about the subterfuge as to the paperwork of her husband’s company (in terms of the pay checks issued, which was money he was actually paying to her himself). She told him to pay his own tax, an obligation the agency had as his employer. The Tribunal finds that Ms Yu knew this advice was unlawful.

“The employment presented to Immigration NZ was a façade. There was no genuine job. It was a mechanism designed to obtain a work visa for the complainant (and ultimately residence) and hence a substantial premium for Ms Yu and her husband.”

Another client called and sent messages to her dozens of time, and unwittingly became an unlawful overstayer.

One woman had been applying for visitor visas for her relatives and said “the fraud had caused great loss to the family”.

“Ms Yu has not denied any of the allegations made against her,” said tribunal chair David Plunkett.

“As a professional person, she has a responsibility to engage in a disciplinary process. The tribunal draws an adverse inference from her failure to engage with either the authority or the tribunal. She has provided no explanation for the serious wrongdoing alleged against her.”

The tribunal heard she forged the signature of a client and fabricated an INZ letter, concealing decline decisions and not following up on information requests.

The Registrar of Companies has initiated action to remove Liberty Consulting from the register.

Qian Yu registered Global Pathways Consulting as a new limited company in February, with her husband Toby Castelucci as director and sole shareholder.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Dunedin police say they shot at a man as he drove his vehicle towards officers and their patrol car while trying to avoid arrest.

Police were looking for the man in relation to a series of offences in the Otago coastal area over recent days.

Officers involved in an operation to locate the 46-year-old saw him at a commercial premises on Kaikorai Valley Road at about 6pm and tried to apprehend him.

Superintendent Jason Guthrie said the man drove his car towards the patrol car in an effort to avoid arrest and in response police fired one shot.

“No other shots were fired in the incident, and nobody was injured,” he said in a statement.

The man then fled in the vehicle but was later found in Brockville where police successfully deployed road spikes, he said.

The man fled into the bush but was found soon after by a police dog team in the Fraser’s Gully area, he said.

Earlier on Wednesday, police had asked the public to keep clear of Three Mile Hill and Brockville as officers searched the cordoned area.

Cordons were still in place at 9pm on Wednesday but were expected to be lifted shortly, Guthrie said.

The incident will be referred to the Independent Police Conduct Authority as is standard procedure when a police firearm is used.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

A biosecurity operation is under way in the Auckland suburb of Papatoetoe following the discovery of a single male Oriental fruit fly in a surveillance trap.

Biosecurity New Zealand commissioner North Mike Inglis said the fruit fly was identified on Wednesday evening.

“We will be ramping up trapping and inspections in Papatoetoe. As a precautionary measure, Biosecurity New Zealand will put in place legal restrictions on the movement of fruit and vegetables out of the area where the fruit fly has been found.

“Over the next 24 hours, we will issue details about these controls and the exact areas affected,” he said.

In the meantime, it was important that people who lived and worked in the suburb not take any whole fresh fruit and vegetables out of their property.

Biosecurity staff would be out on Thursday providing the local community with information, Inglis said.

Biosecurity’s most recent eradication was a single male Queensland fruit fly in Mount Roskill, which wrapped up last week after six weeks of intensive fruit fly trapping and the inspection of more than 230 kilograms of fruit.

“The Oriental fruit fly find in Papatoetoe is unrelated to the Queensland fruit fly in Mt Roskill,” Inglis said.

The fruit fly poses no human health risk, but there would be an economic cost to the horticulture industry if it were allowed to establish here. Adult flies lay eggs into fruit, where the maggots feed and cause the fruit to rot.

How to identify the fly

Adult flies are a little larger than a housefly (6mm to 8mm long); have a dark “T” shaped marking on the abdomen (the part behind the waist); usually have a bright yellow and orange abdomen (but can vary); have clear wings. The female fly has a pointed “sting” to lay eggs inside fruit (but she can’t sting or bite people). The male fruit fly is a similar size but is reddish-brown.

Biosecurity New Zealand says if people who think they’ve found a fruit fly should photograph it, capture it if possible, and call MPI on 0800 80 99 66.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Fire and Emergency says a large grass fire in Central Otago has now been contained.

FENZ was called to a large grass fire that was threatening structures in the Springvale area near Clyde before 3.30pm.

About 18 fire crews responded along with four helicopters and at least eight properties were evacuated.

Fire and Emergency said the helicopters had now been stood down.

The fire was 400 metres by 400 metres initially, but a spokesperson earlier said it was spreading quickly through grass and pine trees.

Aimz Hemming said they were able to smell the smoke from their street a few kilometres away.

“When the alarm went off, all the sirens were go,” Hemming said. “It was a wee bit scary.”

* Are you in the area? Contact RNZ at iwitness@rnz.co.nz

Earlier a spokesperson said it was unknown if any properties had been damaged at this stage and crews had also moved livestock out of paddocks that were under threat.

Fire and Emergency is working with police to close Springvale Road.

People were urged to stay away from the area and to be extra cautious as a lot of crews were tied up fighting to contain this fire, the spokesperson said.

Fire and Emergency also said the fire was producing a lot of smoke which was drifting towards Alexandra.

“If you are in the vicinity of the smoke, please stay inside with windows closed.”

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

A manhunt is underway after a firearms incident at a petrol station on Kaikorai Valley Road, in Dunedin.

Police say they are looking for a person who drove away from officers at the scene.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

A report has exposed increasing nitrate contamination in Southland’s groundwater, sparking a call from Greenpeace for a nitrate emergency to be declared in the region.

The Southland Regional Council report said approximately 15,000 Southlanders could be drinking water polluted by nitrates.

It pointed to the intensification of dairy farming as a key cause of growing nitrate levels.

The report said nitrate concentrations in groundwater frequently exceeded 3.5 mg/L and in some places exceeded the New Zealand drinking water standard of 11.3 mg/L.

More than half of Southland’s domestic drinking water supply wells were estimated to have nitrate concentrations above 3.5 mg/L.

The Ministry of Health considers the current maximum acceptable value (MAV) for nitrate appropriate, although some public health experts argue the drinking water limit is too high and potentially puts people at risk of pre-term birth and bowel cancer.

Greenpeace freshwater campaigner Will Appelbe said the findings were alarming.

“It’s made clear what many of us have known for quite some time, that nitrate contamination is a real crisis in Southland and the main cause of that contamination is the intensive dairy industry,” he said.

“At a bare minimum it’s time that Environment Southland declared a nitrate emergency. Environment Canterbury declared one last year for very good reason, it’s clear that Southland has a drinking water crisis on its hands and it’s a result of nitrate contamination.”

The report said the region’s dairy boom had coincided with a decline in water quality and the region’s groundwater was vulnerable to contamination.

Between 1990 and 2022, Southland’s dairy herd increased by 1668 percent from 38,000 to 668,000 cows.

Otago University research fellow Marnie Prickett said Southland needed to reduce its dairy herd, and she was also calling for an independent inquiry into the regional council’s land-use rules.

“Southlanders need Environment Southland to chart a really robust path out of this. It can’t be tinkering around the edges it has to be driving confidently forward about what they’re going to do,” she said.

The report said 44 percent of domestic supply wells (612) and 45 percent of registered public drinking-water supplies (18) were located within areas classified as having “high vulnerability to nitrate contamination”.

“here may be approximately 1,530 people on private supplies and 13,632 on public groundwater supplies at risk of exposure to high concentrations of nitrate in drinking water,” the report said.

Environment Southland general manager science Karen Wilson said although the report did not present new data, it brought together a range of information to give an integrated view of groundwater quality, nitrate sources, and health risks.

“This science formed the basis of the Southland Water and Land Plan, which was accepted by the Environment Court. The plan was the first step in responding to Southland’s groundwater nitrate challenges,” she said.

Federated Farmers Southland president Jason Herrick said declaring a nitrate emergency would be an overreaction and unhelpful.

“Nitrates aren’t a new issue for Southlanders at all, and it’s not just dairy, as a society and as a people we’re all responsible for our challenges that we had. This is a long-standing challenge that the community have been aware of and working on for quite some time now,” he said.

The report said 71 percent of groundwater sites had shown increasing nitrate contamination over the past two decades.

Hotspots included Balfour/Waimea Plains, Wendonside Terrace, Five Rivers/Castlerock, Edendale, Knapdale, Mabel Bush/Woodlands, Central Plains/Waimatuku, and Otahu Flat.

Southland Regional Council freshwater principal scientist Ewen Rodway said the council was working to deal with the problem.

“We’re continuing to monitor groundwater quality across the region, identifying these high-risk areas and using those to focus efforts such as focusing farm plans, and working with catchment groups to reduce nitrogen losses in those vulnerable areas,” he said.

Rodway said a decision about declaring a nitrate emergency sat with councillors.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

The Nurses’ Organisation says Christchurch Hospital is reaching capacity, with some elective surgeries cancelled on Wednesday.

Allister Dietschin, a healthcare assistant and Nurses’ Organisation delegate, said the hospital was “heaving” and it had been “madness” for some days.

Earlier on Wednesday resourced bed occupancy in the hospital reached 99 percent. Dietschin said some elective surgeries had been cancelled as a result of the high demand.

He said as well as a high volume of patients, they were also short staffed.

Christchurch Hospital “often” had high volumes of patients and not enough staff. It was a problem the union had been asking for that to be addressed, Dietschin said.

He said the complexity of the patients they were dealing with was also through the roof.

“It’s diabolical really.”

Dietschin said traditionally they had less demand over summer, but that had not been the case this year. He was worried what that would mean for the colder months ahead.

“We’ve had huge demand over the summer period, and now with winter coming on, it’s just going to get even busier.”

Health New Zealand says 10 planned elective surgeries were deferred over the past two days at Christchurch Hospital due to a high number of acute trauma patients who required immediate care.

“As I am sure you will be able to appreciate, patients who require life saving care will always be prioritised,” a spokesperson said.

“We are not anticipating any further deferrals for elective surgery, and patients will be re-booked as soon as possible. To be clear this is unrelated to staffing or hospital capacity.”

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand