A Somali woman who lied about her identity when she came to New Zealand six years ago may be deported after serving a home detention sentence.

A woman going by the name of Raha Ali Abdi, 30, was sentenced to nine months’ home detention when she appeared in Auckland District Court this week, after being convicted of two charges of supplying false information to Immigration NZ.

In 2007 and 2008, she tried to claim asylum and told officials she didn’t have any other names. She also said she had only ever lived in Somalia before fleeing via Kenya.

But Immigration had no record of her entering the country and her fingerprints matched those of a person who had entered Canada, the United States and United Kingdom under different names.

Immigration’s identity services manager Jacqui Martin says it is the first time evidence like fingerprints gained from a five-country agreement has been used in such a prosecution.

Since 2010, Immigration has been able to store and use biometric data and can check it against information held by the UK, US, Canada and Australia.

An Immigration spokesman told NZ Newswire it hoped to decide whether or not to deport Abdi by the time she finishes her home detention sentence.

He cited privacy reasons for not saying why she was not deported immediately.

NZN