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NRI couple convicted
for immigration fraud in UK
WSN
Network
LONDON: An
Indian-origin couple in Britain face a long prison sentence after
being convicted of running a racket to bring illegal immigrants to
the country on the pretext that they were musicians or dancers from
India.
Rani Paul Kashyap, 44, and her husband Joginder, 51, were convicted
in the Stafford Crown Court last week of conspiracy of facilitating
the commission of a breach of immigration law between February 2003
and March 2005.
The Tamworth-based couple will be sentenced at Birmingham Crown
Court in May, according to a report in the Birmingham Evening Mail.
Mark Wall, prosecuting lawyer, said the couple masterminded a plot
to run the racket from their legitimate Sonia and Sunny
Entertainments business in Birmingham. He said the company was set
up to supply Indian entertainers to people in this country.
Wall said: "The prosecution do not think this business was entirely
bogus because they quite legitimately provided entertainers on a
regular basis."
But the company was used in part as a front to help people come into
this country who were not genuine entertainers.
The way they tried to persuade the authorities they were genuine
people was to provide genuine dates in Britain along with documents.
Wall said: "But very many of these bookings for these bogus
entertainers were forged to mislead the authorities. They applied
for group work permits and supported people who applied to the
British High Commission in New Delhi.
"Once they had visas and work permits they were able to come to this
country and many of those people just disappeared. Most of the
concerts did not take place because they were bogus.
"The prosecution cannot say, but there is a fair inference you can
draw by the fact that they would have been paid for their services
and salted money away. It was a conspiracy and a plan by the
Kashyaps to get people into the United Kingdom from India who should
never have been allowed in."
Meanwhile, immigration officers raided four restaurants in Falmouth
and escorted six people in handcuffs for questioning. The raids on
the Asha India, Gurkha, Bangkok House and Balti Indian were carried
out after a tip-off that there might be illegal immigrants working
there.
A spokesman said the raids had been intelligence led.
"We can confirm that the Border and Immigration Agency with support
of the police conducted an operation in the Falmouth area on March
31.
"This operation is consistent with the Border and Immigration
Agency's commitment to target illegal working and intelligence-led
operations are conducted every day of the week across the country to
detect and remove those people who have breached immigration laws.
"The government has made it clear that it will take a robust
approach to removing people from the country where they have no
legal right to be here.
"We seek, where possible, to remove from the UK any individual found
to be knowingly working without leave to remain or working in breach
of their conditions of entry. This includes illegal workers."
11 April,
2007
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