Indian-origin shopkeeper jailed in illegal immigration case

Font Size

Print

Feedback

Email

Discuss

Related Articles

UK to tap NRIs to build bridges towards IndiaIndia for 'Open Sky' policy with UKAir India executive wins libel case against UK new...Indian-origin shopkeeper jailed in illegal immigra...

London, April 23: : An Indian-origin shopkeeper has been jailed for five years for assisting a gang that organised illegal entry into Britain of thousands of people from India via South Africa in recent years.

Asif Patel, 32, from Daubhill, North England, was sentenced in the Leicester Crown Court this week, while his accomplices received their sentences in January following an extensive investigation into illegal immigration.

The smugglers forged people and stole documents to bring Indian citizens illegally into Britain via South Africa.

Holders of South African passports can enter Britain as visitors for a period of six months.

The investigation, which began in September 1999 after an illegal passport-making factory was busted in a house in Leicester, was led by Britains Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) and spanned several countries.

Other members of the people smuggling gang were sentenced to various periods of imprisonment at the Leicester Crown Court.

The gang earned millions of pounds by their activities by charging nearly 8,000 pounds (about USD 15,500) per person to enter Britain illegally.

In some cases, after the Indian nationals were brought into Britain via South Africa, they were then facilitated to travel to Canada or the US through the collusion of a corrupt official at the Heathrow airport.

The accomplices of Patel -- Sajid Bhikhi, 40, and Asif Bhikhi, 38, both of west London, and Soyab Patel, 25, of north London, were sentenced to five years in prison for conspiring to facilitate illegal entry into Britain.

Another accomplice Sikander Patel, 36, from Leicester, was jailed for three-and-a-half years for the same charge plus obtaining leave to remain in the country by deception and being in possession of a false South African passport.

Sabbir Patel, 31, from Leicester, was jailed for two-and-a-half years.

"This conspiracy involved a professional and sophisticated operation. It involved the obtaining of South African passports, first by obtaining South African identities by the corrupt officials in the South African equivalent of the Home Office," Judge William Everard said.

"And when all those false identities had been obtained it enabled corrupt officials to produce South African passports which were entirely genuine in appearance but of course fraudulently issued," he added.

The judge recommended the deportation of those defendants who had not yet secured British citizenship.

Trevor Pearce, SOCAs executive director, said: "This was an international conspiracy which required an international response and partnership between agencies was key to fully dismantling this lucrative organised criminal enterprise."