Sixth defendant jailed over 'cash for citizenship' scam

A SIXTH man has been jailed for his role in a huge "cash for citizenship" scam which revolved around a Yorkshire training centre.

Halil Dari, 35, was sentenced to nine months in prison yesterday for helping migrants to obtain false citizenship test passes from the City Wide Learning centre in Sheffield.

Five other men were jailed last month for their part in the nationwide conspiracy to defraud the UK Border Agency between October 2005 and February 2007.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

All six were found guilty after an eight-week trial at Sheffield Crown Court. Two others had pleaded guilty at earlier hearings.

Dari's case was adjourned for a pre-sentence report but Judge Murphy QC rejected a plea for a non-custodial sentence.

"I made clear when I sentenced the others how seriously the court takes this offence," he told him.

"As I said before, it's not just about people passing an interesting little quiz – this is a gateway to a British passport."

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Passing a citizenship test has been a legal prerequisite for anyone wanting to obtain a British passport since 2005. City Wide Learning was one of about 100 centres around the country which ran online Life in the UK tests but the trial heard its directors and a number of middle men, including Dari, arranged for hundreds of migrants to obtain false pass certificates, in exchange for cash, without ever visiting Sheffield.

When police raided the premises in February 2007, there were seven people registered to take the test that day but none were actually on the premises.

Dari opted not to give evidence but the prosecution linked him to the fraud through handwriting and fingerprints found on a significant number of application forms at City Wide. At yesterday's sentencing hearing, the court heard that Dari, from Sheffield, was implicated in helping 13 people to obtain false certificates.

Previously, two of City Wide's directors, Liban Mohammed Yousif and Abdi Rashid Yusuf, were jailed for three and a half years for their central role in the scam, with a third director, Mustafa Yassin, jailed for two and a half years. The centre's administrator, Mubarak Yusuf, was sentenced to 15 months in prison. Mehmet Ince, a middle man who induced scores of London-based Turkish immigrants to pay hundreds of pounds for false certificates, was jailed for two and a half years.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Two other middle men, Birmingham-based Mohamad Jafari and Shpetim Ymeri, from Dagenham, received suspended prison sentences of six and eight months respectively after pleading guilty to introducing smaller numbers of immigrants to the conspiracy.

Related topics: