Immigrant plot gang ordered to repay £400,000

Confiscation hearings have now concluded at Sheffield Crown Court, five years after South Yorkshire Police received reports from people concerned about Sheffield-based City Wide Learning Ltd.

An investigation revealed people had paid the firm to help them take the immigration system’s Life in the UK test, but found company staff taking the test on customers’ behalf to ensure they passed.

A gang of eight men were jailed in early 2010 following a three-year investigation and five of them have now also been made the subject of confiscation orders by a judge, with value totalling £433,526.19.

South Yorkshire Police’s economic crime unit manager Graham Wragg said: “The work of the police asset recovery unit has ensured those convicted have not been allowed to benefit from their criminality.

“Should they fail to make payment in the allotted time they will serve an additional period of imprisonment.”

The men, Mohammed Ahmed Yousif, Abdirashid Yusuf, Mustafa Ahmed Yassin and Mehmet Ince, who were all directors of the firm, have been told to each repay amounts varying between £146,618 and £203,167.

They have been given six months to pay, but if they fail to do so Yousif, Yassin and Ince will be jailed for 18 months on top of their original sentences, while Yusuf will be given a further two years.

Yousif, 35, of Holywell Heights, Brightside, and Yusuf, 38, of Norwood Drive, Norwood were both originally jailed for three-and-a-half years. Yassin, 30, of Headford Grove, Broomhall was given two-and-a-half years and Ince, 38, from London, was jailed for two years.

Steve Lamb, of the UK Border Agency in Yorkshire said: “Immigration fraud is a serious offence and those involved can expect to receive heavy penalties.”