Motel owner

 

PHOTO: GOOGLE MAPS The rental property, which tenant Zain Syed illegally sub-let to MSD clients, according to the Tenancy Tribunal.

A motel owner who allegedly misused thousands of dollars in taxpayer money received more than $1 million from the Government after his actions were discovered.

In 2018, the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) paid Auckland Astro Motel director Zain Syed $60,800 to house homeless people at the Ōtāhuhu motel.

Instead, he allegedly moved the family into a property he was renting for $500 per week – and pocketed $52,800 in profit.

In May, the Tenancy Tribunal ordered Syed to pay his landlord $50,000 after it found the arrangement amounted to illegal sub-letting.

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