Immigration consultant fined $50K, sentenced to house arrest after creating fake documents: CBSA

A Winnipegman who worked as an immigration consultanthas pleaded guilty to misrepresentationunder the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, afterhe created fraudulent documents as part of his consultancy, theCanada Border Service Agency says.

Balkaran Singh, 45, was working as a regulated Canadian immigration consultant when he sparked the suspicion of the CanadaBorder Service Agencyin January 2021, the federal agency said in a Friday news release.

That month, he went tothe Emerson, Man.,border crossing to obtain work permits for three non-citizens accompanying him, telling border officershe offered all three jobs at a gurdwara a Sikh holy place of worship near Winnipeg, the agency said.

The officers denied the work permits due to "multiple concerns and indicators," according to the release, and referred the case to the border service agency's criminal investigations section.

In December 2023, the investigatorsexecuteda warrant to search Singh's home and place of business, as well as agurdwara. They took acomputer, multiple cellphones and physical documents as evidence, the border services agency said.

The investigation determined that Singh "did not adhere to the conditions set out in several employment offers at the gurdwara" and that "hehad created and procured fraudulent documents for clients of hisimmigrationconsultancy," the border services agency said.

Singh was charged in Februaryunder a section of theImmigrationand Refugee Protection Act that makes it acriminal offence to knowingly counsel a person to misrepresent or withhold information that could interfere with enforcement of that act.

He pleaded guilty on Oct. 2to one countof counselling misrepresentation.

He was sentenced totwo years less a day of house arrest, which includesa prohibition onproviding immigration advice, a curfew and an order to complete 200 hours of community service. He was also fined $50,000.