Gurpreet Singh is accused of taking thousands of dollars from Indian migrants in a sophisticated immigration rort.

In part one of The Big Scam, a Stuff investigation, restaurateur Gurpreet Singh was exposed as a fixer securing questionable visas for migrants. In part two, Steve Kilgallon and Dileepa Fonseka explore how under-the-table visa scams work in the hospitality industry. Visuals by David White.

The New Zealand hospitality industry is rife with "tonnes" of "money-hungry" operators ready to collaborate in immigration frauds, says a man who helped make many of them work.

Aamir Shah was businessman Gurpreet Singh's lieutenant as he cut deals with migrants to pay huge sums for jobs and visas to stay in New Zealand. Some of those jobs were fake, others required the migrants to repay most of their salaries in cash to Gurpreet.

But Shah says Gurpreet was just a middle man, and it was the owners of the restaurants and cafes that took on Gurpreet's clients that took most of the cash.

Shah says Gurpreet would charge migrants tens of thousands of dollars but would take only a few thousand as a "service fee" for himself.

Shah says he was "certainly" involved in the scams, but could talk openly because he left New Zealand for good last December.

Shah says it wasn't hard to find willing collaborators, and Gurpreet simply approached businesses and offered them money.

"I can tell you openly people are all money hungry right? You go and offer somebody money, they will take it. It's not just one employer – there's tonnes that have."

supplied Aamir Shah says corruption is rife in hospitality.

Stuff spoke to another restaurateur who signed up to a similar scheme – operated by someone else – who was repaid in cash for the salary he paid a migrant chef who was working to secure permanent residency.

Rob (not his real name) is sorry for doing it now, but says it seemed a good idea when he was struggling to find staff. The deal was the chef would effectively work for free – he would pay the official salary, but once a month it was returned in cash by an intermediary. The chef got an essential skills visa, and as soon as they qualified for residency, they walked out.

Rob justified it to himself by comparing it to a common industry practice overseas called 'staging', where aspiring chefs work for free in Michelin-starred kitchens in return for references. But Rob soon realised two things – it was all highly illegal, and the chef was hopeless. But he didn't feel he could back out, so he let the arrangement run its course. "You start off thinking it's a good way to keep costs down – and there is a genuine shortage of chefs," says Rob. "Then I got in too deep to back out. Once you're in, you can't really back out."

A publican we spoke to said he once bought a pub and questioned the high staff costs in a budget line – only to be told that all of them returned a percentage of their wages back to the owner in cash.

One migrant involved in a scam brokered by Aamir Shah said he was paid below minimum wage and went thousands of dollars into debt to afford the fee.

Baljit Singh hasn't bought a new pair of shoes in two years despite sometimes earning over $1000 a week at a restaurant where the cheapest main is $26.

He provided Stuff with two years of bank statements which explain why he has been so short of cash.

They show regular cash withdrawals of over a thousand dollars almost immediately after every payday.

Baljit's former employer says he thinks these withdrawals are because Baljit had a gambling problem.

But Baljit says these were withdrawals of cash he had to give back to his employer, leaving him with just $400 a week.

"I started my job with $17 per hour, that's on my contract for the guy," Baljit says. "He raised my pay to $20 an hour from November 2016 – but I was still getting $400 a week."

A few days before Baljit's visa was set to expire in May 2016, Gurpreet told Baljit he could get a work visa and a job at a restaurant for $35,000 that he could pay in instalments.

Two weeks into work, Baljit says Gurpreet and his new boss made it clear he would be paid $400 a week.

Baljit says when he paid for the job he didn't realise he wouldn't be paid his contracted rate: he'd assumed he would be able to earn back his investment through his wages.

Text messages show his boss requesting Baljit keep his $400 out of an amount of cash to be deposited.

When his boss is twice asked for an explanation about what he meant by this message, he first refers the query to his lawyer, then says he can't recall writing the message.

DAVID WHITE/STUFF Gurpreet Singh is accused of orchestrating a sophisticated immigration scam.

The texts are in a similar pattern to those received by Karamjeet Singh - whose story was covered in part one - during his employment at the Gurpreet Singh-linked Killer Prawn restaurant in Whangarei.

After paying most of his wage back to his employer, Baljit says he often did not have enough money to buy food.

The employer-sponsored work visa locked him into debt and work conditions that sent him spiralling into a deep depression.

The $35,000 was to be paid in instalments and to meet payments, Baljit borrowed money from ASB bank, his parents in India and an uncle in New Zealand.

At work he had no set hours: every night, Baljit had to text his boss to ask what his start time would be the next day.

When Baljit didn't make payments on the money he owed, his boss texted to say he would employ someone else unless Baljit resolved the "problem with your agent".

Balijit's boss acknowledges there was an agent involved who set Baljit up with the job but denies knowing Gurpreet or Shah.

He says he doesn't know what the "problem with your agent" message refers to but says employees like Baljit were normally set up with him through agents who sorted out their work visas.

Baljit also faced increased mental strain from his boss's management style which included a text from him calling Baljit a "pussy" when he claimed a day off due to illness.

Baljit says he was working up to 60 hours a week, and became stressed and went on antidepressants.

His voice cracks as he describes these moments, reaching for a word to describe the strain of working at the restaurant and the stress he feels Gurpreet, Aamir and his boss put him under.

Although Baljit's visa was tied to the restaurant, he could apply for a variation of conditions to switch employer. By September 20, he'd found someone outside of Auckland willing to hire him.

"I was looking for the jobs day by day, day by day. I left Auckland because I don't want to live there anymore because that place gave me so much stress: job, people, you know."

JOHN HARFORD/STUFF The short version of how a visa scam got people into New Zealand - and into massive debt.

​Karamjeet Singh, the scammed migrant from the previous story, says Gurpreet told him Shah had been caught by Immigration NZ for his involvement in the scheme and had informed authorities about Gurpreet.

Shah says he meant no harm by being involved in the scheme and paid back money to several of those who did not receive the visas or residency they wanted.

He believes Baljit will also eventually get his money back.

But Baljit's attempts to seek justice have been unsuccessful. A complaint to the Labour Inspectorate saw inspectors visit the cafe and find nothing suspicious, he says.

Baljit is a "compulsive liar", according to his boss, who says the fact investigators didn't find anything is proof Baljit's accusations are lies.

He firmly denies receiving any payment for Baljit's job.

"I had numerous people coming and checking my books, seeing all the evidences that I'm not part of any dodgy deals."

A business partner involved in the restaurant says: "I'm not aware of anything like that. It's definitely news to me."

He adds that twice the restaurant paid Baljit cash advances (explaining the $400 text), which wasn't unusual, and that his work patterns reflected the nature of hospitality. He says the Labour department investigators were satisfied there was nothing in the allegations.

"He resigned, [and] after he resigned, he raised a dispute - the Labour department investigated, and were obviously satisfied, and it sounds to me like a bit of a disgruntled employee."

And the message about his agent? The business partner says that was an issue with Baljit trying to turn his work visa into permanent residency and asking for a payrise to $25 an hour to meet residency requirements - and the restaurant refusing.

Baljit says the reason those investigations didn't find anything was because wage records recorded him as having been paid regularly and even being paid for periods when he was holidaying in India.

Baljit had also written a resignation letter that didn't raise any issues with the restaurant and was later cited as evidence he left on good terms by the restaurant's lawyers during an unfair dismissal claim. "I think [the boss] is a very clever guy," he says.

In part three, we meet the woman who has dealt with scammers three times and now faces deportation.

Have you been exploited by an immigration fraud? Contact us: dileepa.fonseka@stuff.co.nz and steve.kilgallon@stuff.co.nz