• Romney Marion Lavea, 55, was sentenced to two years and nine months for unlicensed immigration advice. 
• The hearing marked the third time his obesity was referred to in a bid to get a reduced sentence. 
• Judge Evangelos Thomas noted Lavea’s actions harmed New Zealand’s immigration credibility and the trust of vulnerable victims. 

A morbidly obese, longtime fraudster who was twice previously released from jail early due to weight-related health issues has been imprisoned again - this time for giving unlicensed, dubious immigration advice that a judge described as having damaged New Zealand’s international standing. 

Romney Marion Lavea, 55, wore an oversized poncho and gripped crutches as he appeared this week in Auckland District Court for sentencing. His lawyer asked Judge Evangelos Thomas if he could remain seated in the gallery instead of the dock due to his weight. The judge declined the request. 

Defence lawyer Panama Le’au’anae later asked for his client to be given a non-custodial sentence based in part on his weight, health and remorse, and so he could arrange reparation payments to his latest victims. The judge again declined. 

“You are ... an established liar,” Judge Thomas said of the remorse and reparation claims. “I take anything you say with a very large grain of salt. 

“I can’t trust much that comes from your mouth. You’ve had many opportunities to put right what you have done [via restitution]. You’ve taken none of those opportunities.” 

Lavea first made headlines in 2007, after he was sentenced to two years and seven months’ imprisonment. An Auckland District Court jury had found him guilty of four counts of using a forged document and 20 counts of supplying false information to the Department of Labour, or MBIE - now known as the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment. An immigration consultant at the time, Lavea had included fake job offers in clients’ residence applications, the court was told. 

But the case took on more interest post-sentencing, when his then-lawyer Chris Comeskey argued to the Court of Appeal in Wellington that Lavea’s prison sentence should be altered to home detention to account for his weight-related health conditions. 

Comeskey described his client as weighing 200kg and being so overweight he couldn’t touch his feet. In prison, Lavea couldn’t use the toilet or dress without assistance, the lawyer said, adding that there had been an “equivocal statement” from prison managers that staff would not assist with his hygiene requirements. Those hurdles made a prison sentence “disproportionately severe”, he argued. 

In a preliminary bail decision released just days after his September 2007 sentencing, the Court of Appeal seemed sceptical of the argument. 

“This was serious and sustained offending by a man with previous convictions of a not dissimilar nature which undoubtedly called for denunciation and a sentence which had a deterrent aspect,” the court said. 

But Lavea later prevailed and was granted home detention. 

Just three months after that sentencing, Lavea returned to court to plead guilty to another scheme in which he and his brother stole the identities of seven dead children to obtain passports. The 14 forged document charges, dating back to 1996 and 1997, were punishable by up to 10 years’ imprisonment. 

“The abuse of the identities of dead people is something we take extremely seriously,” Department of Internal Affairs passports manager David Philp said at the time, explaining that such crimes undermine the New Zealand passport. “It rekindles distress and grief for the families of the dead person, whose identity is being misused, often from many years ago.” 

That distress was palpable during Lavea’s February 2008 sentencing hearing, when the father of one of the dead children fought back tears and blamed the defendant’s offending for causing his wife’s early death. 

Brian Thrussell said his firstborn son, Phillip, died in 1960 just one day after birth. He and wife Maxine were forced to relive that heartbreak when they learned of the identity theft in 2005, he said, explaining that his wife died just months later at age 66. 

Leavea’s weight was again addressed at the second sentencing hearing, with his lawyer again asking for a non-custodial sentence based on the hardship he’d face. Judge Elizabeth Aitken wasn’t buying it. She sentenced him to two years’ imprisonment, noting that prison authorities had indicated they could meet his needs in jail. 

But he received early parole after just over four months. 

Thrussell was “utterly disgusted” to learn of the decision, believing the so-called “fat fraudster” had managed to eat his way out of jail, he would later tell the Sunday News. 

Brian Thrussell, then 73, told the Herald in 2008 that his wife's death was caused by heartbreak after Romney Lavea stole their deceased infant son's identity for a passport scheme. Photo / Kenny Rodger 

The Parole Board said Lavea’s long criminal record made the decision difficult. 

“In the end, his medical condition at the moment is such that the board cannot confidently decline his parole on the basis that he is an undue risk to the community,” the decision noted, according to the Sunday News. “We think his activities might well be restricted by virtue of his medical condition.” 

They were wrong. 

Lavea was sentenced again in November 2013 - this time to home detention - after pleading guilty to having defrauded ACC from 1998 to 2011. During that period, he had been paid weekly compensation totalling over $37,000 after claiming he could not work due to injuries incurred during a car crash. But, as had been made clear during his previous court hearings, he had been doing extensive immigration consultant work. 

Despite declaring repeatedly that he was not receiving any income, records showed he had submitted over 1000 visa and permit applications to Immigration New Zealand and had travelled extensively between Samoa and New Zealand, according to ACC. 

But it didn’t end there, Judge Thomas noted at this week’s sentencing. Lavea’s current offending stretched from 2011 to 2023. He had already been charged with some of the current offences when he went on to offend again while on bail, the Judge noted. 

“You didn’t care,” the Judge said. “You thought you were untouchable.” 

Auckland District Court Judge Evangelos Thomas. Photo / Sylvie Whinray 

Seven victims give evidence against him in a jury trial in July. He was found guilty of six counts of giving immigration advice without a licence and four counts of receiving a fee or reward for the illegal advice. 

The court heard Lavea had advised a young woman, aged 21, to get married to help her partner get a visa. He did get a visa as a result and has since left her, having used the document to move to Australia, the judge was told. He suggested to another victim that his chance of getting a visa would increase if he adopted his children out to other families. 

“The effect of his advice to us caused us to overstay in New Zealand,” a mother-of-three said in a victim impact statement this week. “It caused a lot of stress to us.” 

The woman, accompanied in court by her husband and an interpreter, said their children missed school days and sometimes didn’t go to the hospital when sick because finances were so tight as a result of the costly process. 

“Our overstay in New Zealand is not our fault,” she said. “We did not want to stay here illegally ... We trusted him.” 

Lavea’s lawyer noted that the family now lives in New Zealand legally. 

“It’s accepted that he broke the law, but behind this unlawful offending there was a genuine desire to help these people,” Le’au’anae said. “They were all in a deep hole. In most of these cases, he helped lift them out of that hole.” 

Most of the money Lavea took from the victims was spent directly on Immigration New Zealand filing fees, the lawyer said, noting that of all seven victims he ended up with just $1600 in voluntary koha that he kept for himself. And he was prepared to pay that money back, Le’au’anae said. 

Defence lawyer Panama Le'au'anae. Photo / Alan Gibson 

“This is not a man who’s out to take advantage of these people who came to him,” he added. “He hasn’t done it for commercial gain.” 

Although Lavea’s prior convictions meant he wasn’t eligible for a discount off his sentence for previous good character, Le’au’anae urged the judge to take his client’s respect in the community into account when considering a non-custodial sentence. He submitted letters of support from the Pacific Leadership Forum and the Consulate General of Samoa and noted that the likelihood of Lavea re-offending has been assessed as low. 

But Crown prosecutor Ruby van Boheemen argued there had to be consequences for Lavea having so flagrantly ignored the law again. 

“These victims were highly vulnerable people to New Zealand ... when they came to see Mr Lavea,” she said. “A lot of them were desperate and they relied on his advice.” 

She pointed to his 2008 conviction and noted that the current offending started less than two years later. 

Judge Thomas agreed that the previous offending was relevant and warranted a 15% uplift. He noted that Lavea specifically sought to hide his involvement, going as far as creating fake email accounts in his clients’ names so that his own name wouldn’t be traced. 

“They gave you their money. They gave you their trust,” the judge continued. “Who can blame them for laying a lot of their distress at your door?” 

It was important that the licensing regime is followed, he said, “so the world can have faith in our .. immigration standards”. 

“Your actions have caused harm to the credibility of our immigration system as a whole,” he said. “I know that doesn’t bother you but it bothers the country. 

“The moment our immigration system loses credibility we as a nation lose credibility. We are a nation that relies on every ounce of strength we can muster. You’ve certainly done your bit to water that down.” 

The judge declined to allow a sentence deduction for remorse but did allow a 20% deduction for his poor health. He settled on an end sentence of two years and nine months’ imprisonment. 

He also ordered Lavea to pay back the $1600 he had received from the victims in koha but expressed doubt the order would be abided by. 

Craig Kapitan is an Auckland-based journalist covering courts and justice. He joined the Herald in 2021 and has reported on courts since 2002 in three newsrooms in the US and New Zealand.