Director at alleged citizenship scam centre denies dishonesty

Liban Mohammed Yousif said Sheffield-based City Wide Learning had fallen foul of immigrants arranging for people to take and pass 'Life in the UK' citizenship tests for them, but insisted he'd had no idea the impersonation was taking place.

Yousif is one of three City Wide directors who are charged, along with three other men, of conspiring to defraud the UK Border Agency by arranging for false pass certificates to be bought by immigrants who could use them to formally apply for citizenship.

City Wide was one of more than 100 centres across the country that offered the 34 'Life in the UK' test, which was taken online and required a reasonable standard of English and knowledge of British life.

The prosecution has alleged City Wide was at the centre of a major fraud involving large numbers of immigrants paying middle men to acquire false certificates. A series of witnesses have told Sheffield Crown Court they paid hundreds of pounds for the certificates without ever going to Sheffield.

It is also alleged City Wide was taking the tests for the immigrants. A police raid on premises in Broomhall found seven live tests running on computers but no applicants in the building.

Daniel Jones, defence counsel, said: "The prosecution say there were fraudulent tests being taken at your centre."

Yousif responded: "I didn't know at the time but looking at the witnesses that came in it was obvious some people came in to take fraudulent tests.

"As far as we are concerned at City Wide Learning, we didn't know anything about this. We believe we're the victims of this fraud that those people were doing. There is no way those witnesses could pass those tests."

Yousif, along with co-directors Abdi Rashid Yusuf and Mustafa Yassin, is accused of conspiring to defraud the UK Border Agency between October 2005 and February 2007 by dishonestly arranging with Mohamad Jafari, another man called Shpetim Ymeri and unknown others for immigrants to receive false 'Life In The UK' pass certificates.

Also charged are the centre's administrator, Mubarak Yusuf, and alleged middle men Mehmet Ince and Halil Dari. All six deny the charge.

Jafari pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing and yesterday the jury was told Ymeri had also pleaded guilty.

Yousif told the court he had never met Jafari, Ince or Dari. He was not asked about Ymeri.

The jury heard that Yousif and the other defendants had no previous convictions. He came to the UK with his family in 1986, aged 10, and later became heavily involved in community work, which culminated in setting up City Wide Learning in 2004.

The trial continues.