Baroness' Former Housekeeper Jailed

Tapui sentenced to eight months for fraud and overstaying visa

Baroness Scotland's former housekeeper Loloahi Tapui was sentenced to eight months in prison at the Old Bailey.

27 year old Chiswick resident Loloahi Tapui 27, was found guilty of fraud, possessing a false identity document, and for overstaying her student visa by four years, offences which the judge warned at her trial last month were "very serious".

Tapui worked at the Chiswick home of the Attorney General for eight months until September 2009 when it was discovered that she had overstayed her visa. She was subsequently arrested along with her husband, Alexander Zivancevic, and their flat searched by immigration officers.

She was sentenced to four months for fraud, four months for possessing a false identity stamp, and concurrently one month for overstaying her student visa.

Tapui has also been ordered to pay £1,600 prosecution costs plus defence costs.

It took the jury of eight men and four women less than 90 minutes to decide that Tongan born Tapui deceived the Attorney General about her legal status in order to obtain the job as a cleaner in the Baroness' home.

Tapui insisted Baroness Scotland never saw the passport or asked about her legal status but admitted she did see her CV, pay slips and her marriage certificate when she applied for the job in Chiswick in January 2009.

Baroness Scotland was fined £5,000 for employing Tapui. However, despite calls for her resignation, the Attorney General managed to hang onto her job after former PM Gordon Brown said she had only committed a “technical” breach of the legislation she had helped to push through Parliament.

May 28, 2010