Jailed: Illegal who faked IDs to stay in UK for 21 years
A FAILED asylum seeker used a “veil of deceit” to beat government red tape and live illegally in Britain for 21 years, it emerged yesterday.
Ali Hussain Karim, 47, should have been sent back to his native Iraq after arriving here in 1999.
But instead he used two new identities to make fresh claims with Home Office and DVLA officials to create confusion and evade deportation.
He managed to get indefinite leave to remain in the UK plus a British passport – then used both bogus identities to fraudulently obtain two driving licences within two weeks of each other.
By the time police caught up with him in June, he was deemed a naturalised UK citizen under the name Hawre Hasan
Raza and living in a £150,000 house in Crumpsall, Manchester.
His photo was on both Iraqi and UK passports using the name of an Iraqi friend Hawre Hasan Raza plus an Iraqi passport in his own name. He was charged by police under a third identity Kamal Monsour.
Inquiries revealed Karim had put in numerous applications for driving licences, passports and immigration claims under various names since 1999.
The bogus claims sometimes included him simply swapping around his forename and surname. Some applications were approved despite previous rejections. He also attempted to claim asylum in Germany.
Karim, an Iraqi Kurd who claims to hail from a wealthy family, was jailed for 14 months after he admitted immigration fraud. He faces deportation at the end of his sentence.
The court heard he had arrived in the UK in 1999 after fleeing Saddam Hussein’s regime and claimed asylum under the false name Kamal Monsour.
Prosecutor Craig MacGregor said: “What followed was a systematic attempt to create two new identities.”
Manchester Crown Court heard that he first made an application for asylum under the surname Kamal in May 1999, then in January 2000 he made a claim for asylum as Mr Raza.
In December 2002 his application as “Mr Kamal” was refused as he was told he had already claimed asylum in Germany and the following January he was deported there.
Mr MacGregor said: “But he somehow made his way back to the UK and applied for indefinite leave to remain in the UK as ‘Mr Raza’ on March 24, 2004. On February 16 his immigration status documents were issued.”
His lawyer Richard Orme said: “This offending aside he has led a law-abiding life.”
Sentencing judge Timothy Smith told Karim: “Your actions were persistent and designed by you over a long period of time to evade border controls.
“You were lucky to remain here illegally for as long as you did as you masked your identity in a veil of deceit.”