Former motel owner gets home detention, company ordered to pay $115,000 over exploitation

Clarification: The headline and first and third paragraph of this article have been updated to reflect the fact that Fei Huang Teng Da Ltd no longer owns 315 Motel Riccarton.

Former motel owner Jian Li has been sentenced to more than seven months' home detention, and his company ordered to pay $115,000 for offences relating to migrant exploitation.

Li was sentenced in Christchurch District Court on Wednesday after pleading guilty to seven migrant exploitation charges under the 2009 Immigration Act.

As the owner and operator of Christchurch company Fei Huang Teng Da Ltd, which was trading as 315 Motel Riccarton until July 2025, Li forced migrant workers to be on call from early morning until late at night, seven days a week, according to Immigration New Zealand.

The company had earlier been sentenced in May and was ordered to pay $115,077.26 in reparations.

The offending involved four migrant workers employed as motel managers between February 2017 and December 2021.

The workers were required to live on-site and effectively run the motel operation, including staffing reception from 7.30am until 9.30pm every day of the week.

Despite working between 84 and 98 hours each week, they were generally paid for only 40 hours, Immigration New Zealand said.

The department's investigation found that the workers were denied minimum wage and Holidays Act entitlements, including annual holidays and time-and-a-half for working on public holidays.

Jason Perry, investigations national manager at the department, said the case showed that employers who took advantage of workers who relied on them for both their job and their right to stay in New Zealand would be punished.

"These workers weren't just working the occasional long day," Perry said.

"They were essentially running the motel from morning until night, seven days a week while being paid for only a fraction of the hours they worked.

"That's simply not acceptable. No one should be expected to work those kinds of hours without being paid properly."

Perry said migrant workers had the same workplace rights as anyone else in New Zealand.

"The majority of employers do the right thing, but when someone chooses to underpay workers and ignore basic employment obligations, it harms the workers involved and puts honest businesses at a disadvantage," Perry said.

"Employers shouldn't be able to gain a financial advantage by cutting corners and exploiting their staff."

As part of the court proceedings, approximately $115,077.26 in reparations had been paid to the workers.

Perry said while the reparations were an important outcome, they did not undo the impact the workers had experienced.

"This sentence sends a clear message that migrant exploitation is a serious offence," he said.

"If employers choose to exploit workers, we will investigate and take action."

Immigration New Zealand encouraged anyone who was experiencing or aware of migrant exploitation to report it.