Migration scam cash spent on gambling

Former Leeds Metropolitan University law graduate Yousaf Amin and his friend Sajad Khan were jailed for a total of 10 years last November following a lengthy police investigation after the Yorkshire Post exposed the swindle in 2008.

The pair were back at Bradford Crown Court yesterday for a confiscation hearing aimed at recovering as much of the cash as possible.

Judge Peter Benson was told that Amin’s benefit figure from criminal conduct was assessed as £374,325.64 but prosecutor Tom Storey said Amin only had available assets amounting to £8,373.03 made up of the balance of a bank account, an Isa and the value of a vehicle.

It has previously been revealed that Amin had a gambling habit and frittered away most of the proceeds in casinos.

Judge Benson made a confiscation order in the sum of £8,373.03 and said Amin would have to serve a further five months in jail if it was not paid within three months.

Khan’s benefit figure was put at £15,000, but the court heard his only assets were a total of £16.12 in two bank accounts.

The judge said he would have to pay back the £16.12 within three months or face serving a day in prison in default.

The court had previously heard how Amin set up a fraudulent immigration advice service in Bradford called Temple and Khan in early 2007. It was established only days after Amin left prison after being jailed over a fake work permit scam and despite his being banned for life from being an immigration advisor.

The business, put in Khan’s name to get around the ban, netted more than £100,000 through pocketing fees for a full range of immigration advice services.

At one point, Amin persuaded a woman to part with £3,000 towards a £5,000 fee to arrange a sham marriage which ultimately never went ahead.

Amin and Khan then branched out, setting a fraudulent company called Training Direct to provide English language courses, largely run at a training centre in Leeds, with the promise of a qualification required to apply to the Home Office for citizenship.

Between November 2007 and March 2008, it stacked up more than £300,000 from immigrants duped into paying £350 for a worthless qualification, which falsely claimed to be accredited by City and Guilds.

The scam began to unravel when course certificates proved useless for UK citizenship applications.

Sentencing the two last year Recorder Jonathan Sandiford said Amin, the architect of the scam, had “ruthlessly” exploited the hopes of vulnerable immigrants who thought they were receiving legitimate advice and qualifications.

He sentenced Amin to six years in prison for fraud with a 12-month sentence for illegally providing immigration advice to run concurrently.

Khan was jailed for four years.

Both men were also given 12-month sentences, to run concurrently, for fraudulently obtaining an Audi Q7 and VW Touareg, each worth more than £40,000. The cars, obtained through loans backed by false documents, have both since disappeared.