An employer who made one of her staff sleep in the back of her van, while forcing another who lost her baby to pay back her wages, struggles to accept she’s done anything wrong.

Sneha Patel, also known as Sejalben Rahulkumar or Sejal Patel, pocketed nearly $50,000 of wages and holiday entitlements that were supposed to have been paid to three of her employees.

Instead, she used it to expand her business enterprise around Auckland and Waikato.

Patel incorporated Skin Delight in March 2016 before setting up a dairy in Auckland, the Avondale Superette, and three Hamilton businesses – a fruit and vege shop called Avalon Fresh, Unique Cleaning Solutions, and a lawn-mowing business – in 2018.

Over eight months in 2018, she hired the victims, who either had temporary work visas or no visa at all, and for two of the workers paid them nothing for two months.

One pregnant female employee who lost her baby while working at Patel’s beauty salon was also made to pay her boss back $3212 after being told by a doctor she should take two weeks off work, as she was unable to do any beauty treatments.

Another employee was paid a month’s wages for working at the Avondale Superette before the payments stopped. He also slept on a single mattress in the back of Patel’s vehicle, before moving it on to the floor of the dairy.

Patel, 36, was in the Hamilton District Court for sentencing on nine charges laid by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment this afternoon, in the hope of avoiding a jail sentence.

Despite “extraordinary explanations” to try to justify her offending, which Judge Stephen Clark soon after dubbed “nonsense”, she managed to persuade him that a jail term would be “disproportionately severe” mainly because of her mental health issues and current “high-risk pregnancy”.

The former Taupiri woman, who lives in Hamilton, has been ordered to pay the victims $49,858.96 in reparations, $30,000 of which will be paid tomorrow and the remainder in six months.

‘I’m being a good sister’

One of the victims was unlawfully in New Zealand when employed by Patel, a fact she was aware of.

She provided him with a vehicle to work in both Hamilton and Auckland and told him before he moved to Auckland that she would provide accommodation. She didn’t.

He typically worked six to seven days a week, 8am to 8pm. After a month, she said she couldn’t pay him anymore because the business was slow and instead said she was “being a good sister” by saving his salary to secure a visa.

The victim who worked at the beauty salon typically worked 16 hours more a week than she was paid, while a third victim didn’t get any pay for the two months working for Patel.

‘Deliberate and sustained’

MBIE prosecutor Tim Gray said Patel’s offending was “deliberate, sustained, and commercially motivated” and focused on expanding her business “empire”.

Patel also had prior knowledge of employment law, having previously complained of her own immigration exploitation.

The prosecution had also been drawn out. After she initially pleaded guilty in May 2024, she sought to reverse her guilty pleas but was unsuccessful.

He was also critical of her “hollow” remorse letters, in which she said her actions “contributed” to the offending.

“The offending was entirely hers.”

‘She was desperate’

Counsel Pennymay Symonds said her client had $30,000 to repay the victims immediately and, after being questioned by the judge about paying back extra funds, she agreed.

Symonds pushed for discounts for Patel’s guilty pleas, previous good character, upbringing and produced a letter from her doctor that confirmed her pregnancy.

Patel was declared bankrupt in February 2020, to effectively wipe her civil debt, but she had been out of bankruptcy since 2023.

Her offending came down to “financial desperation”, Symonds said.

Sneha Patel, also known as Sejalben Rahulkumar or Sejal Patel, 36, of Hamilton. Photo / RNZ

Judge Clark said she would have to concede there was a commercial benefit involved in Patel’s offending because although her businesses “may not have thrived”, it helped them stay afloat.

Symonds agreed but added the expansions were to try to keep the “flailing businesses” alive.

Patel had also been “significantly mentally unwell in the years following the offending ... which had affected her judgment in facing the offending head on”.

The judge struggled to accept Patel was remorseful given her “bizarre” comments to a pre-sentence report writer about why the offending happened.

Patel said two men had entered her life and wanted a relationship but then manipulated her. They then spread “vicious rumours in the community” about her before reporting her to officials, including those at Inland Revenue, the Ministry of Social Development and MBIE.

One of them, she claimed, was a senior immigration official.

“They’re extraordinary explanations, and which, to be frank with you, are nonsense,” the judge said.

In her section 27 report, Patel also spoke of being blackmailed by two men in India and enduring a “difficult arranged marriage”.

However, she had a stable job for the past two and a half years as a mental health support worker and had letters of support from the Sikh community.

‘You broke them’

The harm to the victims was clear in their statements, the judge said.

“All three of them trusted you ... and you broke them.

“They got into significant financial difficulty ... they have been emotionally affected, have felt isolated and stressed about the fact that you lied to them.

“They felt exploited by you,” Judge Clark said.

“You knew their immigration status. You knew what the law required you to do.

“You exploited them.”

After taking a starting point of 33 months’ jail, he applied various discounts before getting to 21 and a half months’ jail.

On the six charges of exploitation of unlawful or temporary employees, two of aiding and abetting, and one charge of provision of false or misleading information, he then converted that to 11 months’ home detention and ordered the reparation to be paid.

‘Holding offenders accountable’

Jason Perry, MBIE national manager immigration investigations, said the convictions send a clear message to those looking to take advantage of unlawful or temporary workers.

“Ms Patel’s sentencing is a result of a complex five-year Immigration New Zealand investigation – demonstrating our commitment to holding offenders accountable and protecting the rights of all workers in New Zealand, regardless of their immigration status.”

Belinda Feek is an Open Justice reporter based in Waikato. She has worked at NZME for 10 years and has been a journalist for 21.