Land of milk and honey becomes jail for cleaner

A Colombian woman used a fake Spanish passport to come to New Zealand to scrub floors and save enough money to pay for her 10-year-old son's operation on a deformed leg.

Maria Oliva Rosas Peralta, 64, wanted a better life for herself and her three children, who live in a one-room apartment in Bogota.

Lawyer Kevin Smith said she had heard she could get a passport and come to New Zealand, where she could earn enough money to pay for surgery to help correct her son's deformed leg.

She knew using the passport was illegal, but was desperate. Work was hard to find in Bogota and she did cleaning when possible, often having only US$25 a week for food.

Rosas Peralta herself needs an operation for kidney stones and had hoped to send money back to Bogota to her sister, who is looking after the children.

She went to Lima, Peru, where she bought a US$2000 fake Spanish passport in the name of Maria Sonsales Estebanez-Garcia.

While there, she met John Gerardo Medina Fuentes, 33, who was getting a passport in the name of Mariano Carlos Castillo-Tancreda. Both were also given Spanish identity documents.

They were on the same flight to New Zealand on May 13. They were given three-month visitor visas and spent three weeks in New Zealand before buying tickets to Melbourne and trying to leave from Wellington International Airport on June 2.

When stopped by Immigration officials, both admitted the passports were fake.

Mr Smith said Rosas Peralta had wanted to work, would have done anything but did not speak any English and had not known how difficult it was.

"She thought it was the land of milk and honey and instead is in a prison cell unable to talk to anyone else and spending her days reading a Spanish bible."

In Wellington District Court, Judge Denys Barry remanded them both in custody last week until August for sentencing.