UK Border Force - Season 2, Episode 1: Britain’s Biggest Visa Scam

25,000 men and women work for the UK Border Agency at home and abroad their job is to seek out the wall breakers and imposters who don't have a right to be here they are the UK for efforts tonight unearthing Britain's biggest ever immigration scheme with me upstairs now at Heathrow the passenger looking for more than just entry to Britain is a big work and tracking down the Indian holidaymakers who never went home four years ago so your six-month visa is will expire has been expanded will expire [Music] people all over the world want to live and work in Britain in 2008 a hundred and eighty thousand people applied for UK work visas there are plenty of businesses that offer advice to those hoping to be among the lucky ones not all of them play by the rules the UK Border Agency and the police have joined forces to combat companies putting in fraudulent applications to the home office this morning in West London a team led by DC Andy Cornwall are planning a dawn raid they are targeting a company owned by an Indian national called Jatinder Shan pastor Singh suggested in Chapel Jatinder Shawn who's supplying counterfeit educational documents the team believed Sharma is married to two women Neelam and rocky and that all three run a visa racket that has given thousands of people access to Britain who shouldn't be to search his privacy please yes he upstairs I'll come after you mr. Sharma's so if you come downstairs with this I should explain everything to you Sharma is a trained solicitor whose previous clients include the hook-handed Muslim cleric Abu Hamza the officers want to contain Sharma and his wives so they can't destroy incriminating evidence address educational documents any articles that they've used to manufacture those documents okay I understand that Rakhi have a seat in that chair for us please DC Cornwall has something else on Sharma and his wives he suspects they've used deception to stay in the country something that he needs to say to eat - you first during the arrested okay I'm selfish of obtaining leave by deception no harm offensively I'll mention one questions are they going on occult practices this is Neela you've been assisting the non EU citizen domain the UK Neelam is suspected of endorsing Rocky's fraudulent application to stay in Britain while studies do that same thing I'm highly defensive do not mention when questioned so later an encore rocky is here on a work but has never worked where she's supposed to you should not be in Duquesne during the rest for obtained the section which Sharma and his two wives under arrest for immigration offenses the team look for evidence that they're behind the bigger crime of running a fake visa fact do you have any any documents in this building mr. Sharma in this fax that you shouldn't have please feel free well I don't do any kind of deception so far we've found bank statements showing large deposits we've also got various what appears to be Indian certificates a blank letter heads and we've also got a stamp and a neat pad for the smile dental clinic figure to read backwards with its bangle or if the certificates and the stamps are counterfeit it could go some way to enabling unqualified people to work fortunately as dentists in Britain and while there's evidence there moving large sums of money around the world it seems Sharma likes to keep it in the family and mr. P Sharma so younger son is 8 any owes money his bank accounts in arrears is that that makes no sense where's pence who's using who pshh armories after two hours of searching the officers have found six thousand pounds in cash details of bank deposits totaling hundreds of thousands of pounds spans suspected fake certificates now tucked away in one of the bedrooms is perhaps the most revealing find so far [Applause] which explains the fast quantity of stamps different stamps and stuff start making machines they will be used in the facilitator before in the home office with qualifications that maybe haven't been obtained by the relevant person using them the raid has thrown up plenty of questions to put to mr. Sharma and his two wines and that's after only searching their home now the team have their sights on their business address what you've got here is people who are abusing the privilege of living in the UK and that's what we're hoping to prove today in relation to these individuals marvellous see Bacchus after actually coming up no option but to release repeat offenders who play the system what people don't come back you're not connected to what okay off you go and homing in on the Sharma's business leads to damning evidence I've got still it anyway he needs international graduate soon so we have to show some course as fantastic is the killer's there it's estimated there are over a million illegal immigrants living in Britain many choose Britain because they believe it's a soft touch they know the scams to stay on illegally and avoid deportation the UK Border Agency has 38 enforcement bases whose job it is to track these people down today a team in Glasgow are carrying out a raid on the Royal India restaurant in one of the city's most affluent areas they have intelligence the restaurant is employing illegal workers I know from emigration if you just see my colleague ah hey there guys from emigration you wait / listen don't forest please make it real here meguri oh the team find five workers and the owner of the restaurant an employer must make checks on his staff to ensure they are allowed to work in the UK he can be fined up to ten thousand pounds for each illegal worker found on his premises once I find out what's happening with Macaulay's and relation to your Krishnan and Olson have a chat with you and will establish after they were working here on normal first to be questioned about his immigration status is the waiter when did some idea four years ago on a six-month visit these harnesses so you know such month Aziza is will expire will expire yes okay the scam of coming into the UK as a tourist and staying on to work has given this man up to four years of illegal employment if his colleague was hoping to pull off the same trick he wasn't banking on meeting the Enforcement Team so soon how long have you been in the UK two weeks do you have permission to work how long have you been working here I do one day for this Indian man found in the kitchen an encounter with immigration while at work is nothing new do you have a passport why don't you have a passport looks usually poor thing to immigration at the moment why are you reporting to office have you been spoken to by immigration before gentlemen encountered and by myself on a previous visit to a restaurant on the opposite side of glass for about eight weeks ago he was then arrested at that point and served papers as an illegal intern and those papers would have told them he's not permitted to work so you'd be phoned them yet again working all eagerly when the team arrested the worker last time they could not find his passport and so were unable to remove him from Britain all they could do was release him on bail the documentation that was issued to you when you were last encountered by immigration must have told you you were not allowed to work you're not permitted to staffing this moment the men do not appear to be fazed by being caught working illegally and this worker has a familiar tale to tell Iceland or the coffee shop last week Tuesday okay how long you been under you okay the man has also recently been arrested by the team and he too was released on bail and told not to work how long have you been working here then how much should get paid not be if the man is not being paid he must be working as a volunteer it's certainly a story the owner wants to promote that's the point okay so you don't pay him any money no what is it good game it's only came in today okay no no I saying but rich we pin a mini money from here tomorrow no so what does it get in return for his employment so he gets fits basically as the illegal worker arrested last week is already on bail and the team still don't have the documents they need to remove him from the UK all they can do is release in once again sure so scared calm last week yeah Gretchen Elliot other people and Cee Lo you're not like to walk in a country illegally was he good what does he do he goes straight back go and get another job how long were you intending to what four months years until you get caught or here uh-huh no no thought oh clock start early yeah night sir you've been all about it what today I guess good you don't believe it no water what King okay yes the same fee equal killer mate like Parveen kumar off it vanishes the man has now twice seen the consequence of getting caught working illegally he knows that until the enforcement team get hold of his travel documents it pays to exploit the system and to find another job okay need to come this way okay and to the frustration of the officers the same goes for the other illegal worker already on them but the owner could be hit where it hurts with a potential fine so far of 20,000 pounds little wonder then that he claims the men were just visiting okay so did you employ a girl went yeah okay so again using and your kitchen dressed and chef wait what's happened there's peas and carrots on your premises and his wetness and your kitchen preparing foods he's working well that'd be an return of its own a ton of money okay okay off you go don't come back here okay so you're not permitted to work okay off you go the men already on bail may be free to go but the remaining two suspected illegal workers may not get off as lifetime if they are arrested and the team find their passports they could be removed from the country within days [Music] 500 miles away the UK Border Agency and the police continue their investigation into the Sharma's fake visa business after a dawn raid Jatinder sharma and his two wives are brought to Southall police station evidence found in their house suggests they're involved in manufacturing bogus certificates for visa applicants I think all aware that we were quite successful this morning we've recovered rocks with 50 to 100 stamped in in all different sorts of identities and for all different sorts of companies which tends to suggest the occupiers were involved in some sort of fraud or deception against the home office and we've seized bank accounts which show that they're making money from their enterprises I think some of the accounts are got fifty thousand some have got twenty thousand pounds in them the officers have plenty of questions to put to the suspects but first they want to look for more evidence the team believed that crucial documents will be held at Univision the business sharma runs with his wives rocky and Neelam we've just arrived at phase two the operation this is the business address of universes this is where the three people will be arrested at the home address work so we've got a search warrant to search this property again looking for any items of documentation of interest specifically immigration related on the surface youna visas is a legitimate legal firm giving advice to overseas applicants for UK visas the team suspected is a front for a racket producing fake documents to help thousands of people stay in the UK illegally it isn't long before they discovered just the sort of papers they're looking for yes it looks as though these are applications for visas for Chinese nationals to come here and study English that's what it appears to be anyway it's not something that the genuine student should need any kind of immigration adviser fans of why does this need to involve universes in another room there's more damning evidence with potentially alarming implications legitimise fortune documents home address you doctor is a fraud of documentation for dentists and doctors etc these people are successful it does make you wonder are they are these people working illegally in the medical industry the apparent scale of universe's activities is even greater than the investigation team had suspected and now after a 3-hour truehl the officers find evidence that lead little to the imagination Sharma has emailed a supplier of fake educational documents on behalf of a client who wants to stay in the UK all studied anywhere he needs international graduate soon so we have to show some course as fast that is the killer isn't it he's very fussy and want some accredited UK club oh he's quite a bit more money that's that's what we've been waiting for isn't it he's not studying anywhere it's been in the UK for three years but his leave is running out so he needs to get on to the IG s is the International Graduate scheme and this is a scheme supposedly to keep quality graduates in the UK that can switch into employment so we have to show some course might be a diploma in Business Administration from July oh five to October 6 and then the post graduate diploma so clearly that's a request for a certificate so that it matches in with a fictional study history put in the first sentence there hasn't studied anywhere so it is clearly it's allied to facilitate the person's permission to stay in the country combine that with the status that they were store and the steps and home address I think I'm trying to fool that the Royal India restaurant the Enforcement Team have had to release two known offenders already on bail now it's time to deal with the two other illegal workers okay through here store cares and suspected emigration offender don't have to see anything anything you do say may be noted may be used in evidence you understand you're under arrest okay this man is in the UK as a tourist and says he's been here two weeks yeah it claimed it came here with has it visa just for the holiday but he's no what can always friends families wasn't I probably doing that tell them coming Brighton you know and you commit and some good money so they all know how to system what I've been doing it for years and the owners should know he can't employ a holiday maker from India even if the man does just turn up at the door and offer to help so he came up to the back door just one up the back door and said I've got to his Fiza okay p.m. any money Sharon comments Realty okay you've been arrested okay because you punch especially been an emigration offender the owner also denies employing the waiter who was overstate his tourist visa by more than three years we're gonna sweep but you're going to do what we tell you to do okay because you won't you must understand knows you arrested the team have found for illegal immigrants at the restaurant they do not believe the owners excuses and serve him notice that he could be fined up to forty thousand pounds for me was have been named on this okay none of them have permission to walk and the you key understand you say they're not getting paid money but any kind of employment will I be paid or unpaid still classes rocking and it's still illegal I've got no fish to do so okay of all the employees found at the restaurant only one is entitled to work he has indefinite leave to remain in the UK employ illegals the thing is you've caught Eustace knows there's lots of people harvest there is that they can't claim look and it's help for them so that's what we have tried to protect the local population people who are you had entitled to what Kiana and there's other people that you can get a job the team don't want to have to release on bail the two men neighbor arrested today but in order to detain and remove them from the country the officers must find their passports [Music] passport for her we cannot remove them we have to apply to and in embassy trying our travel document which can take up to six months we can't detain him for six months so what we saw and with this either you go straight back to work again the holidaymaker is cooperative and has given an address where he's staying with relatives thanks alright but the waiter is being less helpful he claims to have lost his passport and he can't remember his own date of birth why can't you remember your own birthday it sounded the truth since we have a diaper that you pass for Ebola by each one's remember today and put aside your classical and lay it right down the man knows the less information he gives the harder it is to remove him from the country he has given an address where he claims to live but he says he's never been given any keys this meal as tombak for his first day of what today waiting the clothes had been counted the man with only a mobile phone in his possession and the boss fear to get into work this morning it's a common ruse illegal immigrants know that if they're arrested at work officers won't have the warrant to forcibly enter and search their home for a passport the staff around I've searched houses like this before where they've obviously one bloke who's been actually living in a cupboard but the reason why it's a transient is because they moved from restaurant to restaurant usually depending on whether they've been raided by immigration the team searching for travel documents for the holidaymaker have had more luck I've quite a passport forest object which makes her beg toughness Theo's chances are we'll be keeping a hold of them and removing on back tender the passport reveals the man was twice refused to tourist visa to the UK having finally got one he's been found working illegally after only five days in the country the waiters evasive tactics have paid off all the team can do after questioning him is release him on bail until they have the papers needed to remove him from the country and that's why so many what he come here because in Norman Bratton you know how the system works you know if I could add way up to detail people harm play the holidaymaker is detained for six days before being removed back to India for employing for illegal workers the owner of the Royal India restaurant is fine twenty thousand pounds coming up the passenger at Heathrow with something to declare and a setback for the team going after the Sharma's missing millions thirty car yeah remitted by Anil AM to India father in custody that's not good [Music] most of the 70,000 people who arrive each day at Heathrow have a perfectly good reason to come to Britain whether it's business pleasure or simply coming home but some people are trying to get in and stay in the country illegally officer Lisa Lee is one of Heathrow's 1,700 UK Border Agency staff today she stopped a student returning to Britain after spending five months back home in Pakistan mr. khureshi with me I have your ticket passport here okay sir all right he says he's here to take exams but a quick call to his College throws his story into doubt they say he's never attended at all officer Lee wants to search the passengers bags as they might reveal what he's up to in the UK as a student the man is allowed to work as long as it's only part-time he's adamant his main reason for being here is to study the only problem is to be a genuine student you need a genuine college I go to in my college and everyday but they are not studying and they are only Nagesh enterprise please give me a gesture it's my future yeah we'll talk about that in a moment - you need to wait for me you follow me he's very nervous he's almost pleading with me to let him in as I said to you I'll talk to you in a moment okay said a few things about his studies i'ma going everyday but they are not teaching or something so I need to try and work out what he means but he's clearly very worried he actually asked me if I was going to deport him and I said well I don't know what will happen yet just you know bear with me and answer my questions the passenger is desperate to be heard he wants officer Lee to investigate his college justice is a big word all right so you don't have to bear in mind yeah I have to follow the rules the college has give me a deceived to me that's kind of interesting isn't it he's claiming that the college is bogus in that he was attending while he was meant to attend and they were not running classes now they have said to us immediately we rang them he's never attended prom Lee's got as he stayed here for six months without doing it appearing to do nothing and is now saying he's coming back to find another college so either he's not being completely honest or the college is flipping officer Lee must find out who is telling the truth it seems the college is sticking to its guns backing up its claims in writing facts from the college which says that he enrolled on a 12 month course for an Advanced Diploma in business admin we should have comments last March 2008 they claimed to have written to him concerning his poor attendance but they never received any response and so they've removed him from their register which essentially means he has no place to study so now we need to get to the bottom of his allegations as well and to make sure his allegations are understood the passenger was asked for an interpreter how long did you attend the college for I on their off day I was called six months on and off and they didn't teach anything they really did and the transition phase of me how much did you pay them Olazabal 16 hundred pound okay we spoke to college and they gave us this continued don't know domain K College Appa yep Aaron annuity he said I'm saying to you investigate this college or many in quick a letter receive link here there are absolutely no crosses that go on and I haven't received any letter from them okay the difficulty I have is that you were here for six months and you did nothing about this college I mean every other they had more money obviously they're better or Margaret and they were asking me for more money I didn't have any further access to any funds and I was afraid that they were going to report me to the home office and removed me when you arrive today he told me that you were coming back to continue your studies and that you would take exams in March why would you say that if you're not going to attend that college straight because I am generally eventually I would involved a different College in the meantime I didn't want to be stopped by immigration so you lied yes I did so you sought to secure your entry to the UK by employing descent my god I had no money I had no other way sorry life minute because Regan I've always worked hard maybe father kidney transplant patient time my father's a kidney transplant patient oh my and mother is old I'm a mother result my thumb got get up Adam I'm the only son made a mouth guard back while he was in any sense I'm not going to go back because my dad my father will have an auto tech money made money today he saying don't ruin me help me if the passenger is to avoid being sent back home he needs officer Lee to believe his allegations and to accept that he's here to find a new college Jatinder Sharma and his wives neelam and rocky have been in custody for the last six months awaiting trial they are accused of submitting fraudulent visa applications on behalf of foreign nationals hoping to work in Britain DC Cornwell and his team have sifted through 90,000 seized documents and have unearthed the biggest immigration scam ever seen in this country Sharma and his wives forged papers to secure visas for more than a thousand people through their company universes the universes have generated income tax return forms they've generated education forms and they've also generated generated pay slips and employment records and there's proof the rubber stamps found at the Univision office have been used to endorse the bogus documents so that's the stem office of the joint income tax officer which is this stamp here now our scientists have studied that impression a tender stamp and they've they've concluded that there is no doubt stamp has made that impression yuuna visas charged would be foreign workers up to 4,000 pounds of time for fake documents to back up their applications the police believe the company may have raked in more than three million pounds most of it still unaccounted for it's down to DC Andy Cornwall and DC simon Prothero Jones to track down the missing money today they are at court where Sharma rocky and Neelam are due for a plea hearing all three have already pleaded not guilty but they have good reason to change their minds the judges made it clear that today is the last day that a discounter sentence is on offer and without a doubt for all the defendants any discount which I get from an early plea is going to be substantial we are talking years off their sentence as a result of that things are getting fairly heated in there between the between the defense teams and the prosecutor it is very fraught but there's a lot of stake rocky and Neelam stick with their pleas of not guilty but Jatinder sharma tries to strike a deal with the prosecution he's willing to plead guilty on one condition he was prepared to plead guilty provided we excluded his house in in south or from any sort of cash confiscation that kind of set us thinking really why is he so concerned about his house it led us to sort of Muse that perhaps there's a load of cash stored somewhere in that house which is why he doesn't want that the house the subject of any confiscation and the area go the only way to find out is to go back to Sharma's house to take a closer look and it would appear that their business over the 18 months it was running has turned over probably three million pounds now if you look at that and we say maybe a million pounds of that has gone in in expenditure over the 18 months we've frozen assets in their bank account of four hundred thousand so that leaves us short one point six million the reason we were back at home address today pretty much is that we're looking for anything which could have been mini it could be as simple as a big pile of money underneath the floorboards it could be bank documents relating to an account which we didn't know accounts shares stops in in somebody else's name anything which is going to lead us to the outstanding funds I still think there's a lot more money in this town somewhere so we're gonna go back in lifts or balls if we have to go up into the loft lift the insulation just absolutely every nook and cranny you could look around the house around us it's a state here's a man that had hundreds of thousands of pounds in the bank this one house with a very limited amount of equity and it's what he's desperate to keep hold of or is he so desperately hold of a house which is literally filthy and falling you know ripping out floorboards and insulation doesn't reveal the cash the team are looking for openings to Dresden Elam unearths bank accounts the team didn't know about Punjab National Bank we found a bank account in the name of Neil and for this account which we weren't aware of up until now contains just over 20,000 pounds so that's of interest again there's another forty fifty sixty thousand pounds at least so she alone has the best part four million pound in her bank accounts the arrest of Neelam does not appear to have stopped large sums of money being moved between her accounts yeah Neelam to India yeah interesting though the last one was on the 17th of the 1208 17th of the 12 yeah while they're in custody while they were in custody that's not good even though Neelam has been in prison awaiting trial some of the illegally gained money in her accounts has been squirreled away in Indian banks but there is still over a million pounds missing this search has been worth its weight in gold literally tercer would immediately traced tens and tens of thousands of pounds I suspect once I take all these paperwork away with me sit down a desk and go through in a lot more detail it may will help me trace hundreds of thousands of pounds and that's getting towards us all figures and we're looking forward we've had a fantastic result really I'm pleased to tenders pleaded to absolutely everything I know he's guilty he knows he's guilty he's finally done a decent thing and admitted it there is a real sense of satisfaction I've actually seen Jatinder stand in the dock in in the court and finally The Miz's guilt yeah he has done all of this stuff wrong he's lived a good life outfit he's made an enormous amount of money hugely satisfying but still a lot of work to do the officers still have the painstaking job of preparing for a trial it will be for a jury to decide whether rocky and Neelam helped Sharma to perpetrate Britain's biggest visa scam coming up things get desperate for the Pakistani student at Heathrow and the verdict is in for the Sharks [Music] at Heathrow the pakistanis student is waiting to hear if he can come into Britain but first he said he was here to take exams now he's accused his College of being bogus and claims his intention is to find a new college officer Lee refers the case to chief immigration officer Sarah Dyson he can't explain why in the six months that he was here before going to Pakistan he has made no serious attempt to re-enroll or to find another college well I mean I think just by doing that impacts on his credibility don't know and whilst he says no no this College you're just taking money off me they've never provided me with any lessons I don't that's a good enough argument no and that shows that it's not a genuine student who's committed to studying in the UK and and also who died soon as he got to the desk out there he gave a complete rubbish stories disappear he's secured his entry yeah so you have to question his intention my chief immigration officer has decided that we are going to cancel your visa this is because we're not satisfied that you have been making any attempt to study in the UK you can have new Glee and that you lied when you came to the desk on arrival in order bunny knew it had better dog over he goes I've been deceived before like that again with you did that's why we're known for the bad video he goes if if there's any studying go now that quoting man make a good man I'm going to write a report from the information you've given me I will make sure that is passed on to our College the people that look at it colleges okay so they will be looked into I can promise you that do that I mean I can't do anything sir okay the rules are there for a reason I can't just permit you to come into the UK as a student because you're not a student you never have been you must understand the reason we have to enforce the rules it's hard to say whether he's been a victim or not from the fact that he maintained throughout the interview that he'd paid money in good faith and had not received what he paid for that he may well have been a victim the minute we then contact the college concerned it could be that they didn't want us investigating them so they've denied all knowledge of him who's to say who's telling the truth and who isn't it's just the bare facts are that he didn't study when he was given a visa to study that's why it's been canceled the passenger was detained overnight and put on a flight back to Pakistan the next day officer Li handed the information about the suspected bogus college over to colleagues in the investigation team it's been more than a year since the UK Border Agency and police raided the offices of univee zé's and discovered fraud against the home office on a massive scale company boss Jatinder Sharma has already pleaded guilty well Alice one of the many striking things about this case is the arrogance of the man who ran the scam he was so confident he could get you into this country illegally he offered clients and no-win no-fee option today after a four-week trial the jury is expected to deliver their verdict on Sharma's wives Neelam and rocki rocki she's offered a number of Defense's you know if one fails we'll try the other if that fails we'll try the other and first of all I didn't know anything about anything but then if I didn't know or if the if the jury believed I didn't know about it then I'm going to offer a defense of marital coercion Neelam's defense is just I at the time I wasn't aware of any wrongdoing if it happened and she says kind of accepted it did happen then it's down to is down to rakion and Jatinder it's for the jury to decide if they're telling the truth by gambling on a trial the women risk receiving tougher sentences if found guilty it takes four days of deliberation before the jury reaches a majority decision very brilliant result today we've now had all verdicts returned on rocky and Neelam Neelam was convicted on the money-laundering charge rocky was convicted on everything all of the charges against her we've just come out of court tind has been in the dock with them and all three have been sentenced the jury accepts that Neelam was not behind the fraud but she is sentenced to four years in prison for laundering some of the three million pounds that poured into universes rocky conspired with Sharma to defraud the home office by submitting bogus visa applications she is sentenced to eight years in prison Jatinder Sharma is given credit for his early plea and is sentenced to seven years thanks to their criminal activity there could be thousands of people in the UK who are not entitled to be here any visas obviously an immigration consultancy there are hundreds of those operating throughout the capital and throughout the country and and a lot of those will be running similar sort of scams so what we've really dealt with over the last twelve thirteen months is is I believe the tip of the iceberg it's been a long and complex investigation but it's not over yet there's still the missing money to track down and seize as for Jatinder sharma and his two wives they'll be deported to India after they've served this [Music]

Channel: UK Border Force

Views: 625,306

Rating: 4.6954141 out of 5

Keywords: London, England, United Kingdom, Security Guard, Force, Production, Cineflix, Air Control, UK, Airport, Investigation, Security, Border Security Force, Border Security, Border, Police, Maximum Security, Reality, TV, Air Traffic Controller, Reality TV, Heathrow, UK Border Force

Id: -I3Mf2qTr1w

Length: 44min 3sec (2643 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 23 2016