Citizenship test pass 'sold for £400'

Abdullah Zardary, also from Birmingham, said he gave the money to a man called Mohamad Jafari who then acquired, through a middle man, a pass certificate from City Wide Learning which is at the centre of an alleged nationwide "cash for citizenship" scam.

After Mr Zardary's evidence yesterday, it was revealed Jafari pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to conspiring to defraud the UK Border Agency by obtaining the certificate.

The alleged conspiracy included hundreds of people being recorded as passing the computer-based Life In The UK test at City Wide Learning, In Broomhall, even though they lived nowhere near Sheffield. Passing the test, which is in English and revolves around knowledge of key British institutions, is a legal requirement when applying to the Home Office for full citizenship and a British passport.

Six men are accused of conspiring to defraud the UK Border Agency, between October 2005 and February 2007, by dishonestly arranging – with Jafari, another man called Shpetim Yemeri and unknown others – for immigrants to receive Life In The UK pass certificates.

Three of them – Liban Mohammed Yousif, Abdi Rashid Yusuf and Mustafa Yassin – are directors of City Wide and a fourth, Mubarak Yusuf, worked for the company. All four are from Sheffield. The other two alleged conspirators are Mehmet Ince, from London, and Halil Dari, from Sheffield. All six men appearing at Sheffield Crown Court deny the charge.

Giving evidence with the aid of an interpreter, Mr Zardary said he had arrived in the UK in a lorry in 1999. He was granted leave to remain in 2001 and by 2007 decided he wanted to become a full citizen and obtain a British passport.

He said his friend Jafari told him it would cost 200 to obtain a certificate from a centre in Birmingham but that he could obtain it

much quicker from a centre in Sheffield if he paid 400.

"Even without a test, I was told if you pay 400 you will be given a certificate," he told the court, adding Jafari told him he had obtained a certificate the same way.

He said the Home Office refused his application after rejecting his certificate from City Wide Learning but that he had since qualified for citizenship through a legitimate English language course in Birmingham.

The court has previously heard Mr Zardary was traced following a raid on City Wide Learning's offices in Broomhall in February 2007. A related search at the home of Abdi Rashid Yusuf recovered a mobile phone which had a text message to co-accused Mubarak Yusuf suggesting there were a group of tests, including for three Afghans, in the "top tray" that needed to be completed.

Mr Zardary was traced as one of the three Afghans and yesterday told the court he had never been to City Wide Learning.

After he concluded his evidence, the jury was told Jafari had pleaded guilty to being a co-conspirator but the basis of his plea was that he denied meeting any of the men charged with conspiracy or Mr Yemeri, who is also named on the indictment.

Jafari also denied going to Sheffield or visiting City Wide Learning and said he had obtained the certificates through a man only named as "Esmat".

Earlier, a fraud investigator told the court the pass rate for people re-taking the test at City Wide after failing at another test centre was 88.26 per cent, higher than elsewhere in the country.

Adele Couldwell, who works for the University for Industry, which had a contract from the Home Office to run Life In The UK tests nationwide, said 52 per cent of tests at City Wide Learning were taken by people living beyond a 25 mile radius of Sheffield. A comparison with other test centres with large numbers of applicants showed 2.9 per cent outside the same radius at Westminster in London, 1.8 per cent at another London centre and six per cent at Guildford.

The trial continues.