2 Sisters Charged with Trafficking Persons to NZ

The following data is authorised for release by the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) and relates to the number of formal indictments (Information) filed in the High Courts of Fiji by the Director of Public Prosecutions throughout the month of September.
This data is confined to incidents of serious crimes other than sexual violence offences which are recorded and published separately. This data also includes offences committed by police officers.
There were 58 people charged with a total of 92 counts of separate incidents in September. The offences were attempted murder (1), aggravated robbery (7), attempted aggravated robbery (1), aggravated burglary (10), burglary (1), theft (14), arson (3), assault (2), assault causing actual bodily harm (1), act with intent to cause grievous harm (4), trafficking in persons (17), obtaining property by deception (16), money laundering (2), false representation to get a benefit (4), criminal intimidation (2), damaging property (1), possession of illicit drugs (1), possession of controlled chemicals (1), dangerous driving (1), receiving stolen property (1), breach of suspended sentence (1) and resisting arrest (1).
There were 48 victims of the 92 counts of separate incidents. Of the 48 victims, there were six incidents where the accused and victims were related to one another and 3 incidents where foreign nationals were robbed.
A 28-year-old man was charged with the attempted murder of his 35-year-old girlfriend. The accused allegedly attempted to drown the victim.
There were four incidents where the husbands were charged with acts with intent to cause grievous bodily harm for allegedly assaulting their wives.
There was one incident where a 32-year-old man assaulted his de facto partner and allegedly raped her. (NB: The offence of rape is recorded separately).
A 21-year-old woman was charged with arson after she allegedly set fire to her father-in-law’s house causing estimated damage of $35,000.
Two sisters were charged with trafficking in persons, obtaining property by deception and money laundering. They were alleged to have facilitated the travel of 17 Fijians into New Zealand who were exploited and became victims of human trafficking and also allegedly obtained monies from complainants by deception.
Four men were charged with false representation to get a benefit. They were alleged to have made false representations and falsely received grants from the Government under the Homes Care assistance.
Cash and assorted items which ranged from $120 to $19,000 were stolen during the alleged aggravated robbery and aggravated burglary offences which consisted of home invasions, shop break-ins and daylight street robberies.
In three separate incidents, one Cuban man and two Chinese men were allegedly robbed of cash and assorted items.
A 19-year-old man was charged for allegedly robbing a 31-year-old Cuban man of $778 worth of items.
A 33-year-old and a 21-year-old man were charged with aggravated burglary and theft of $1,637 and $3,227 worth of items from two Chinese nationals.
A 47-year-old man was charged with possession of illicit drugs. He was allegedly in possession of 15 kilograms of cannabis sativa.
Refer to the table entitled ODPP Serious Crime (Non-Sexual Violence Offences) Statistics September 2018 for a break-down of these statistics.
Source: Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions
Feedback: jyotip@fijisun.com.fj