Video: Fears for British security as five citizenship test conmen jailed

Sentencing at Sheffield Crown Court, Judge Murphy QC underlined the gravity of a nationwide conspiracy to "cynically undermine" the UK citizenship system which he said could have provided opportunities for terrorists.

The judge said he was sure the fraudsters were motivated by money but added the widescale sale of bogus citizenship test certificates and complete disregard as to the identity of who was obtaining them could otherwise have been exploited for more sinister aims.

Passing a citizenship test has been a legal prerequisite for anyone wanting to obtain a British passport since 2005 but a seven-week trial heard how conspirators linked to a Sheffield training centre took bribes running into hundreds of pounds a time to sell scores of bogus certificates to migrants.

The scale of the scam, which was first revealed by the Yorkshire Post three years ago, has placed a fresh question mark against the Government's management of immigration and, in particular, whether it has adequate control over who obtains citizenship.

Tory Shadow Home Secretary Chris Grayling highlighted it wasn't the first time the system had been hit by fraud which suggested it was "prone to abuse".

But Border and Immigration Minister Phil Woolas insisted the "successful prosecution is one of many examples of the UK Border Agency and police officers working together to tackle serious organised crime in our communities".

The real number of false Life in the UK certificates sold through the City Wide Learning test centre in Broomhall, Sheffield, may never be known but police believe it ran into hundreds and netted City Wide's directors tens of thousands of pounds.

Two Turkish men, one Albanian and an Afghan were convicted for introducing migrants to City Wide who were prepared to pay for false certificates but detectives believe there were several more middle men tapping into a wide range of immigrant communities.

All the convicted conspirators had themselves gone through the UK immigration system and all bar one had become British citizens.

Two of the company's directors, Liban Mohammed Yousif and Abdi Rashid Yusuf, who the judge described as the prime movers, were jailed for three and a half years, 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. All four were from the same Somali family that had settled in Sheffield more than 20 years ago.

London-based Mehmet Ince, who induced scores of Turkish immigrants based in the capital to pay up to 800 for a bogus certificate, was jailed for two and a half years.

Another Turkish man, Halil Dari, who was an acquaintance of Ince and lived in Sheffield, was also found guilty of encouraging more Turks to buy their way to citizenship and a British passport.

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

All eight were convicted of conspiring to defraud the UK Border Agency between October 2005 and February 2007.

Sentencing brothers Yousif and Yusuf, the judge said the citizenship test, which revolves around the ability to speak English and knowledge of the British way of life, was a valuable tool for "social cohesion between the immigrant community and the host community, an important social aim you cynically undermined".

"Even more importantly, these tests were a way of obtaining

a British passport," he added. "The integrity of the British passport is of national importance and national significance. If these tests were bogus and no proper checks were made as to who was handed a pass certificate there would be no way of regulating (whether) those who go on to obtain UK passports are people who should have a passport.

"It's difficult to believe that you could be so greedy and cynical that you abused the trust that was reposed in you. If the people running the tests can't be trusted to ensure they're run properly then who can?

"It's you, the directors of City Wide Learning, who effectively took bribes to provide passes to people who have never taken a test and who in many cases didn't even know where Sheffield was.

"These offences exposed the UK passport system to attack. That was not your aim but it was a consequence of what you did."

The judge later acknowledged the conspiracy was about money and "nothing to do with terrorism", before adding: "But it could have been."

He was particularly scathing of Ince whom he said had exploited the desperation of Turkish migrants to obtain a passport.

"You have lined your pockets at the expense of poor, desperate people. Your part in this was to milk the system for whatever you could get."

Det Sgt Adrian Ward, who led the two-year South Yorkshire fraud squad investigation, said: "This national operation has been long and intricate. These men ran their business illegally, allowing people to falsely claim documents, which has affected people up and down the country."

CENTRE WITH A HIGH PASS RATE

5,742 candidates took the Life in the UK test at City Wide Learning

City Wide had an average pass rate of 84 per cent, the highest of any large test centre in the country

Average national pass rate was only 66 per cent

Just over half the applicants at City Wide came from outside Sheffield area

Home Office blocked 3,500 potential citizenship applications from people with City Wide certificates

All 3,500 were given the opportunity to retake the test for free, but just 889 took up the offer – only half of whom passed

Nationally, just over 900,000 candidates have taken the test to become British citizens or be granted the right to settle in the UK, with 650,000 passing

Hundreds of thousands are believed to have become UK citizens through obtaining an English language qualification

More background to the case in Thursday's Yorkshire Post