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Judge Stribopoulos noted that Lazaro was in a special position to sympathize with the migrants and their desire to start a new life in Canada because their circumstances so closely mirrored her own.

Instead she preyed on them and victimized them.

She arrived in Canada in 1990 at the age of 24 as a live-in caregiver from the Philippines. After three years at that job she moved on to other employment, including selling insurance.

In 2008 she began offering services as an immigration consultant but was never licensed to do this work with the Immigration Consultants of Canada Regulatory Council.

Those who come to Canada through the Live-In Caregiver Program are an especially vulnerable group of newcomers

Several of her clients arrived in Canada only to find their promised job was a lie and their paperwork forged or falsified.

One woman from the Philippines paid her $5,000 to come to Canada on the government’s Live-In Caregiver Program. When she arrived, the woman who was supposedly hiring her had no need of a caregiver. The fake employer later told investigators she was paid $500 by Lazaro to pose as an employer for the application.

A man arrived in Canada after paying Lazaro $4,500 but when he went to the address of his so-called employer to start work he learned it was all a ruse.

Another migrant paid $5,000 and was given fake employer information. She was stopped at the border and deported.

Lazaro told a woman from Hong Kong that her purported employer was away on vacation when she arrived; several months later she had still not been able to make contact. The worker eventually found another job and remained in Canada but, two years later, Lazaro sent her a text saying she would “send her back” if she didn’t pay her more money.