After helping a pair of siblings immigrate to New Zealand a decade ago, Moeaia Tuai financially exploited them for years, treating them as if they were his property, jurors were told today as his slavery trial began in the High Court at Auckland.

However, Tuai and his lawyers say the siblings - a male and a female - are making it all up. He was a well-regarded figure in the community at the time of the alleged offending, something both sides agree on.

In addition to dealing in slaves, the 63-year-old is charged with multiple counts of rape, indecent assault and sexual violation of the female complainant.

“Mr Tuai was offering ... a better future” when he recruited them to NZ, prosecutor Chris Howard told jurors during his opening address.

“But what he ended up giving them was quite the opposite.”

While Tuai did help both of the siblings get jobs, it wasn’t what they were expecting, he said.

The male complainant was allegedly made to work at a series of boarding houses, doing odd jobs such as cleaning bathrooms and maintenance work.

He ended up working about 50 to 60 hours per week, but Tuai arranged for him to be paid only $100-$150 per week, Howard told jurors. The complainant eventually gave Tuai the slip but had to leave his sister behind, he said.

His sister, meanwhile, had at least $78,000 in earnings pilfered by Tuai from five different jobs over a number of years, jurors were told. The money was allegedly squandered on things such as alcohol and lottery tickets.

“He would spend hours outside her places of work,” Howard said, explaining that it was to make sure she didn’t leave.

“He would communicate directly with her employers. He held [her] bank cards. He withdrew cash from her account.”

Crown prosecutor Chris Howard. Photo / Michael Craig

At one point, Howard said, Tuai accompanied her to the bank and tried to get a $30,000 loan in her name. The bank instead allowed a $7000 loan, and Tuai allegedly kept the money for himself.

The control was so extreme that Tuai made false sex abuse allegations against one of the female’s co-workers, when the defendant feared they were getting too close, jurors were told.

“The modern-day charge of dealing in slaves might not fit the practice of slavery you have in your mind,” Howard said, emphasising that it’s not about someone labouring in a field with a ball and chain.

“But some of the underlying principles are the same.”

Arranging work for them and retaining their income, as well as the alleged sexual abuse, amounts to treating them as if they were his property and significantly depriving them of personal liberty, the prosecutor said.

Tuai is also accused of beating the female with a statue and a broom on separate occasions, and threatening to kill her if she told others about the alleged sexual abuse.

Other examples given by the prosecutor cannot be reported. Many aspects of the case remain suppressed.

Tuai was charged last year after the woman came forward.

As a final insult, prosecutors said, he spent the last $800 in the woman’s bank account when he realised she was gone and left her $6000 in debt from the bank loan.

He also called Immigration NZ on her, trying unsuccessfully to make good on an earlier threat that he would get the siblings deported if they ever slipped from his grasp, prosecutors said.

The trial is in the High Court at Auckland before Justice Michele Wilkinson-Smith.

During a brief reply today, lawyer Ian Tucker urged jurors to keep an open mind until the end of the trial and emphasised that his client maintains his innocence.

Jurors will begin hearing from the siblings in their own words tomorrow, when the first evidence will be presented in the trial before Justice Michele Wilkinson-Smith.

Their recorded interviews and live cross-examination are expected to last through the first half of the week.

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 NZ.