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Judge Peter Ross at Oxford Crown Court criticised the Agency for 'catastrophic failures' in its dealings with a Pakistani-run company and then failing to disclose vital evidence when the case finally came to court.
Techsense UK Ltd, based in Milton Keynes, was supposed to be sponsoring immigrants to come and work in lucrative IT contracts for the NHS, BT and Microsoft. But in reality they ended up working in fast food restaurants and stacking shelves in supermarkets.
One of the Government’s own inspectors had already warned that the company could be a front for an immigration scam after visiting their premises in Islamabad. But the information was not acted upon by colleagues in this country.
The Border Force’s predecessor organisation, the UK Border Agency (UKBA), categorised the company as 'low risk' and awarded it a licence to sponsor immigrants for work visas, the trial heard.
Jailing Techsense UK’s two directors at Oxford Crown Court, Judge Ross said: “It is a scandal that no one checked with the organisations that were supposedly contracting with Techsense UK.
“Many of them were in the public sector. It would have been so easy. Everything was just taken ‘on the nod’.”
Techsense officials said that they needed staff from their sister firm in Islamabad, Pakistan, to work in highly-skilled £40,000-a-year jobs at their plant in Milton Keynes. However, basic investigation would have proved this not to be the case.
The company submitted letters and emails to the Home Office claiming ‘partnerships’ with organisations including the NHS, Microsoft and IBM. But, this so-called proof was actually welcome messages they had received for signing up to services on those companies’ websites and the contracts did not exist.
Nevertheless, the Border Agency gave 117 certificates of sponsorship to Techsense UK over a period of three years. Of those more than 50 led to visas and it was estimated that more than 120 family members and dependents were later granted additional visas.
UKBA officials made two visits to the company’s offices in Milton Keynes and one to the plant in Islamabad, Pakistan, but no-one verified the existence of these supposedly lucrative IT contracts.
Catastophic
Judge Ross said the agency was guilty of a 'catastrophic failure to check the material that had been provided.
He summoned a senior Border Force official to explain the debacle to the court, who said that checks on companies had since been tightened and Techsense UK would not have been granted a licence under current guidelines.
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Ghauri, 42, of Grable Avenue, Milton Keynes, pleaded guilty to three counts of fraud and money laundering and was jailed for six years. Junejo, 35, of Mercers Drive, Milton Keynes, was found guilty by a jury of two counts of fraud and money laundering and was jailed for six and a half years.
According to the judge, their scheme had been a 'financially motivated, well organised operation to defeat the immigration rules and regulations in relation to entry to the UK'.
The scam came to light as a result of a separate tax investigation by HM Revenue and Customs.
Both men were also banned from being a director of any UK company for the maximum period of 15 years.
The UK Border Agency was axed last year after a series of scandals and replaced with UK Visas And Immigration and Immigration Enforcement. The UK Border Force was created after being sectioned off from the agency in 2012.
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Susie Hughes © Shout99 2014
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