An investigation has been launched into what officials believe to be a major immigration scam – based in Scotland – in which foreign fraudsters are using fake identities to try and trick their way into Britain.

The Scottish Mail on Sunday can reveal a ‘significant number’ of linked cases are being probed where bogus birth certificates have been used by people submitting their claim to live in the UK.

The apparent plot centres on a single residential address in the town of Motherwell, in North Lanarkshire, which has been listed in all of the cases.

Under immigration rules, EU or British citizens legitimately living in the UK can become a ‘sponsor’ to family members from overseas when they request a Family Permit to move to Britain.

But a series of cases in the immigration courts have highlighted what appears to be an organised attempt to exploit the system using fake documents.

In each case, a number of young men from Pakistan applied for Family Permits claiming to be the adult children, under the age of 21, of various named sponsors living in Scotland.

All provided birth certificates and other documents from Pakistan to support their case – which were then ruled not to be genuine.

In each case, the named sponsors failed to show up for scheduled hearings.

The apparent plot centres on a residential address in the town of Motherwell

The apparent plot centres on a residential address in the town of Motherwell

Scottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay, above said the 'absurd scam must be subject to robust and thorough investigation'

Scottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay, above said the ‘absurd scam must be subject to robust and thorough investigation’

The alarm was raised when a judge noticed that all of the sponsors in each of the different cases had listed exactly the same address in Motherwell.

And although in each case flagged up by the judge the application for a Family Permit was rejected, the suspected existence of an organised scam raises the possibility that any number of other cases could already have passed through the system undetected.

Last night the Home Office confirmed an investigation is underway into the highlighted cases – and also into any other previous cases potentially related to the same address.

And a Home Office spokesperson said: ‘We will not tolerate abuse of our immigration system, and will use all possible powers to protect it against fraud and abuse.’

Scottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay said: “This absurd scam must be subject to robust and thorough investigation.

“It is critical for the authorities to crack down on crime gangs behind industrial-scale illegal migration into our country.”

News of the investigation comes as the UK’s immigration system is already under intense pressure – partly because of the record numbers of small boat migrants arriving in the UK to claim asylum after crossing from Europe over the English Channel.

The probe was triggered when immigration judge Jeremy Rintoul noticed a string of near-identical cases involving fake documents all linked to a single address.

In one case, Abdul Jabbar and Muhammad Tayyab Iqbal, living in Pakistan, requested Family Permits, claiming to be adult sons of a Mrs Nawida Iftikhar from Motherwell, who was named as the sponsor for their application.

Mrs Iftikhar was said to be an European Economic Area (EEA) national who had leave to remain in the UK under the EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS) and who was exercising her right to sponsor an application for family members to join her in Britain.

In January 2022 the Secretary of State refused to issue a Family Permit, stating the men’s Pakistani birth certificates – as well as a marriage certificate for Mrs Iftikhar – were found ‘not to be genuine’.

The Secretary of State concluded ‘all the supporting evidence’ submitted to confirm the relationship between the men and their alleged mother ‘had been confirmed to be fraudulent’.

The men appealed to the First Tier Tribunal of the Immigration and Asylum Chamber but were rejected in October 2022 a judge confirming their documents were ‘none-genuine’ and ruling: ‘I am not satisfied they have established they are the sons of the relevant EEA citizen.’

The men appealed again to the Upper Tribunal.

At a hearing in October 2024 in front of Judge Rintoul, the sponsor – Mrs Iftikhar – failed to appear.

In a written ruling, the judge rejected the men’s latest appeal and said: ‘Their request was refused by the Secretary of State on the basis that the birth and marriage certificates supplied by the sponsor and appellants in support of the application were not genuine. They appealed unsuccessfully to the First Tier Tribunal, then to the Upper Tier Tribunal. In this judgement, the latest appeal is also unsuccessful.’

In a written ruling, the judge rejected the men’s latest immigration and asylum appeal

In a written ruling, the judge rejected the men’s latest immigration and asylum appeal

And in is ruling, he also flagged up a number of other, very similar, cases in which sponsors – who all listed the same address – did not show up for hearings.

He said: ‘Appeals were listed before me in which the sponsor did not attend. These were also appeals against the decision to refuse to issue Family Permits where, as here, there is a dispute as to the authenticity of birth certificates supplied… On considering the court files, I became aware that in those cases all the sponsors appeared to live at the same address in Motherwell as the sponsor in these appeals. Further, in all these cases there was no appearance by the sponsor. On making further enquiries it transpired that there were a significant number of appeals of a similar nature in which the sponsors were all resident at the same address in Motherwell.’

None of the sponsors listed in the various cases appear on any publicly-available registers so could not be contacted for comment.

The Home Office last night pointed out that new immigration rules introduced in October last year give officials the power to strip any EU citizen of the right to remain in the UK if they are found to be helping other people falsely gain a Family Permit.

The spokesperson said: ‘The new government introduced provisions under the Immigration Rules to remove EUSS status from those helping an individual to obtain EUSS leave or a Family Permit fraudulently. The government will continue to thoroughly investigate spurious EUSS Family Permit applications where such activity is suspected.’

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