‘Child’ from Vietnam given £10k of council care was actually 22
A VIeTNAMeSe woman who was trafficked to Britain and pretended to be a teenager has cost a council thousands of pounds in foster care.
Duong Trinh claimed she was 16 when she was found hiding in the toilets of a nail bar during a raid by immigration officers.
She said she had been brought to the UK by people smugglers and was found a foster home by Staffordshire County Council at a cost of more than £500-a-week to the taxpayer.
The total cost of her care is estimated to have exceeded £10,000.
Trinh said she was a victim of modern slavery and made an application for asylum using the false name and date of birth she had given to police.
But after a tip-off, police contacted the Vietnamese authorities who confirmed Trinh was born on July 10, 1994, making her 22 at the time.
They sent copies of her fingerprints and a photo which were a match. Trinh has now been jailed for eight months after she pleaded guilty to perverting the course of public justice at Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court.
The court heard she gave false details as part of a ‘ premeditated ploy’ to avoid prosecution for any immigration offences.
Discussions will now be held over whether she will be deported. Prosecuting, Joanne Wallbanks said immigration officers raided Isabella’s Nail and Beauty in Cheadle, Staffordshire, in March, last year.
Trinh gave her date of birth as October 17, 2000. ‘ Due to her saying she was 16, she was placed into the care of social services,’ Miss Wallbanks said.
‘She was treated as a potential victim of trafficking. She made an application for asylum on May 7, 2017 and again used the false name and date of birth.’ Trinh said her colleagues had told her that if she was questioned she should give a false name and date of birth to make her 16. She said she did not know by doing that she would be treated differently and cost the UK more money.
The foster carer who took her in said she had prevented another child having a new life.
She said she may now think twice about giving a home to a child Philip from Beardwell, another mitigating, country. said the defendant had been trafficked into the country after agreeing to pay smugglers £20,000. He said: ‘Were she to be returned to Vietnam she fears immediate and dangerous repercussions meted out on her because she has not paid the £20,000. She was trafficked. She has been manipulated and abused by others,’ he added. Jailing Trinh, Judge Paul Glenn said: ‘You were arrested and your immediate response was to lie.
‘It is quite plain that giving false details was a premeditated ploy. You knew what you were doing to avoid prosecution for any immigration offences.
‘But more than anything, I suspect this was a deliberate ploy to avoid being deported because you entered the UK unlawfully. You had no right to remain and no legal right to employment.
‘The deception used the valuable time of the authorities, valuable resources and a significant amount of taxpayers’ money.’ Judge Glenn added: ‘The sentence will not trigger
Prints showed she was 22 May not be deported
automatic deportation. That will be a decision for other people in due course.’ It comes at a time when councils across the country are warning they do not have the funds to care for rising numbers of unaccompanied children asylum seekers.
Shropshire Council was left with a £ 1million bill after a group of ten Vietnamese children were abandoned last year.
The ‘ highly vulnerable’ girls and boys aged 13 to 16 ended up in Battlefield, near Shrewsbury, after travelling to the UK from France in the back of a lorry.
Last December, police in Northampton and Corby appealed for help finding 13 Vietnamese children who vanished after arriving in Britain in the back of a lorry.
Councils have a legal responsibility to care for children who arrive in their area from abroad and are paying £305million a year to care for child migrants.
More than 2,500 of the 13,000 unaccompanied child asylum seekers who have come to Britain since 2010 have been found to be over 18. But fewer than 600 have been returned home.