Failed asylum seeker used two identities to stay here for 20 years
‘Masked in a veil of deceit’
A FAILED asylum seeker used two fake identities to create a ‘veil of deceit’ so he could live in the UK illegally for 20 years, a court heard.
Ali Hussain Karim, 47, should have been sent back to Iraq after he fled Saddam Hussein’s regime and arrived in Britain in 1999.
But instead he set up two false identities with passports and driving licences under the fake names to help him evade deportation. By the time police caught up with him in June this year, he had lived here for so long he was deemed a naturalised UK citizen.
Officers discovered him living under the name Hawre Hasan Raza in a £150,000 terraced house in Crumpsall, Manchester.
At the time of his arrest Karim had three passports – an Iraqi and a UK passport under Raza along with an Iraqi passport in his own name.
But he was charged by police under his first fake identity, Kamal Monsour. Inquiries revealed that UK civil servants had fielded multiple inquiries from Karim for driving licences, passports and immigration claims under various names since 1999.
At Manchester Crown Court on Tuesday, Karim was jailed for 14 months after he admitted immigration fraud. He will be deported after completing his sentence.
Judge Timothy Smith told him: ‘You were lucky to remain here illegally for as long as you did as you masked your identity in a veil of deceit.’ The court heard Karim arrived in the UK in 1999 and claimed asylum under the false name Monsour.
The following year he also claimed asylum under his Raza fake identity.
His application as Monsour was refused in 2002 as he had already applied for asylum in Germany so he was deported.
But he made his way back to the UK and again applied for indefinite leave to remain as Raza in 2004.
Over the next five years, he sent more immigration applications and appeals until he was approved to stay as a naturalised citizen as Raza in 2009. But Karim also wanted to establish his right to remain under his Monsour identity.
The Home Office refused his right to remain in the UK as Monsour and his appeal was dismissed in 2016.
However, he wasn’t kicked out and it was only two years later – when he applied for ‘settlement protection’ as Monsour – that preparations began for his deportation.
Craig MacGregor, prosecuting, said: ‘False identities in both names would be used to fraudulently obtain driving permissions.’
Richard Orme, defending, said his client was sorry but did it only because he was desperate to stay in the UK.
He said Karim was simply trying to escape the Saddam regime which killed his father and added: ‘He was clambering for the things we take for granted.’