Four people have been jailed after forging more than 2,000 marriage certificates to help people live in the UK illegally.
Abraham Alade Olarotimi
Onifade, 41, Abayomi Aderinsoye Shodipo, 38, Nosimot Mojisola Gbadamosi, 31,
and Adekunle Kabir, 54, were all sentenced at Woolwich Crown Court in London on
Tuesday.
The Home Office said the four
were part of an organised criminal group that made fraudulent EU Settlement
Scheme applications for Nigerian nationals.
They carried out the enterprise
between March 2019 and May last year, and were also found to have provided false
Nigerian Customary Marriage Certificates and other fraudulent documentation to
help applicants remain in the country.
An investigation from the Home
Office in the UK and Lagos found more than 2,000 false marriage documents were
facilitated by the group, who themselves were Nigerian.
Home Office chief immigration
officer Paul Moran said: "This group was absolutely prolific in their
desire to abuse our borders and have rightly been brought to justice.
"As with many gangs we
encounter, their sole priority was financial gain. I am delighted that my team
was able to intercept their operation, and I hope these convictions will serve
as a warning to unscrupulous gangs who exploit people's desperation to remain in
the UK.
"We will continue to work
tirelessly to secure our borders and clamp down on the gangs who prey on vulnerable
people to make money."
Onifade, from Gravesend in
Kent, and Shodipo, from Manchester, were both found guilty of conspiracy to
facilitate illegal entry into the UK and conspiracy to provide articles used in
fraud. They were jailed for six years and five years respectively.
Gbadamosi, from Bolton, was
convicted of obtaining leave to remain by deception and fraud by false
representation and sentenced to six years.
Kabir, from London, was found
guilty of possession of an identity document with improper intention but was
cleared of obtaining leave to remain by deception. He was jailed for nine
months.
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