27-year-old Gurwinder Singh who offered a NZ police officer $200 to let him off a drink-driving charge will be deported to India.
A recently released Immigration and Protection Tribunal decision revealed that Singh was caught driving with double the legal amount of alcohol in his blood in May 2019.
An essential skills work visa holder, Singh pleaded with the police officer to discontinue the charging him with the offence and offered $200. The police officer refused.
Gurwinder Singh was convicted in February this year and was sentenced to six months home detention, ordered to pay $170 in reparations, and disqualified from driving for six months.
Gurwinder Singh first arrived in New Zealand on a student visa in 2014 to study Business Management. His parents and two sisters live in India.
Singh was served with a deportation liability notice in February as Immigration New Zealand “was not satisfied he was of good character in light of this offending”.
Singh had appealed the decision to deport him on humanitarian grounds.
The appeal included a statement from his current employer about the significance of Singh’s work and references from work colleagues and friends.
The tribunal noted that Singh had been in New Zealand for about seven years but his qualifications, work experience and other community involvement was “no more than modest”.
The tribunal also observed that while Singh was “remorseful” for his offending and had no prior convictions, the seriousness of his offence “would have weighed heavily against any humanitarian circumstances that he had.”
Singh’s appeal was declined.
Instead, on 11 June, he was granted a three-month work visa to “get his affairs in order” to return to India.
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