Cheat Your Way To A Passport

A corruption scandal that strikes at the heart of Britain’s immigration controls is exposed today by a Mail investigation.

Migrants who can speak no English were able to buy, for just £500, a certificate which says they have passed a language test.

The documents open the door to British citizenship, allowing them access to a full range of benefits. 

MPs and campaign groups warned that our revelations could be just the tip of the iceberg at a time when 200,000 passports are being granted to migrants every year.

Home Secretary Theresa May last night ordered an urgent investigation into the Mail’s evidence, which could lead to criminal prosecutions.

The scam focuses on exam centres – licensed by the Home Office –  which are supposed to test if a person can speak English to at least a basic level. 

The test, accredited by exams watchdog Ofqual, must be passed by anybody who wants to remain permanently in the UK or become a British citizen But secret filming at one centre – responsible for passing 50,000 candidates – exposes how staff sell pass certificates to migrants who did not even attend.

The investigation into Learn Pass Succeed (LPS), which has four branches in London and is accredited by a Home Office-approved examination body, reveals:

• Applicants are offered a ‘guaranteed pass’ for the compulsory Entry 3 Level ESOL exam for £500 – more than three times the normal cost
• They do not have to turn up at the centre, take any classes or sit the test
• Staff recruit a fake sitter to take the oral part of the test, which is recorded
• The reading, writing and listening sections are completed by the staff themselves
• Applicants who do decide to sit the tests are given answers in advance

In the wake of the Mail’s findings, LPS has been suspended by the examining body, EMD. But with a record number of passports being handed out, there are fears the racket may be far more widespread.

The Mail began investigating an LPS branch in Upton Park, East London, after a tip-off from a whistleblower. The basic ESOL test it administers, which demands an ‘intermediate level of conversational English’, was introduced by the Home Office to ensure immigrants were integrating into society and had the skills to get a job.

During our undercover probe, the Mail paid £500 for a pass certificate in the English language exam for a fake candidate despite him never sitting the test or taking a course.

 

 Within weeks of enrolling the candidate on to the course with Usmaan Attan, the manager at Upton Park, the Mail received the Ofqual-stamped EMD certificate from LPS head office in Leyton, East London.

It said he could speak, read, understand and write English to the standard required and had completed the course and exam – which he had not.

An accompanying letter from LPS confirmed ‘that the student was initially assessed by a qualified ESOL tutor’ despite staff never meeting the fake candidate.

One of the directors of LPS, Uzwan Ghani, who is based in its head office, insisted the fraud was isolated to the Upton Park centre. 

The 31-year-old, whose wife works as a licensing officer for the Home Office’s science department, said: ‘I’m shocked that this has happened and am very concerned as to how it could have happened.

‘We are very thorough when it comes to checking IDs of candidates before they take the test, so I will have to investigate which of the centres the test was taken in and who the assessor was. 

'I’ve been in the business for five years and I’ve never come across something like this and I would not allow it. It is wrong and ridiculous. I will immediately suspend any exams coming from the Upton Park branch and report them to EMD

‘I have no intention to continue with the Upton Court branch if things like this have happened.’  

EMD said its recent audits and unannounced observations of the company had not suggested any wrongdoing. But compliance manager Jane Robson said: ‘The entire LPS centre will be immediately suspended. We will also be notifying Ofqual and will be looking into these allegations.’

When the Mail approached Mr Attan, he refused to comment. A fellow manager at Upton Park, who refused to give his name, said: ‘Malpractice happened in this centre. There is no denying it. We’re holding our hands up to it.

‘It’s not something that happens frequently, but it has happened. What happened can’t be undone. We’ve now had threats of legal action from the head office and the examining board.’

The English language test must be passed alongside the separate Life In The UK exam, which quizzes candidates on general knowledge and UK law. 

This multiple-choice exam has itself been the subject of scandal. Investigations revealed the same people were sitting the test repeatedly on behalf of a range of candidates.

Last night Immigration and Security Minister James Brokenshire said: ‘The Home Office takes any allegation of fraud extremely seriously and we have already begun a full investigation. We will take the strongest possible action against anyone who is found to have abused the rules - including the possibility of criminal prosecutions for fraud.

‘This ESOL certificate is just one element of a wide range of evidence required by individuals applying for settlement and citizenship. Nobody can gain a UK visa on the strength of this qualification alone.’

Tory MP Mark Reckless, a member of the Home Affairs select committee, praised the Mail for exposing the scandal and called on ministers to make the system more secure. Fellow committee member James Clappison said the revelations raised questions about the integrity of the citizenship regime.

Citizenship applications surged in the wake of Labour’s open-door immigration policy. Last year, 200,000 requests were rubber-stamped. The main beneficiaries are from India, Pakistan, Nigeria, China and the Philippines.

Migrationwatch chairman Sir Andrew Green said: ‘It is appalling that it should be so easy to purchase a crucial document, especially as to be able to speak reasonable English is of real importance to participating in our society. Not only that but, once granted citizenship, a huge range of rights becomes available.’ 

A guaranteed pass... and you don't even need to turn up

It took less than four minutes for Usmaan Attan to reveal he could arrange bogus English language qualifications for immigrants looking to get a British passport.

In his tidy office in Upton Park, East London, Mr Attan said he could get around the compulsory test – even if the candidate spoke no English.

The Learn Pass Succeed office is in the predominantly Pakistani area of Plashet Road, set among ethnic shops, and easily spotted thanks to shiny, bright purple signs.

When asked if he would give our candidate the questions that are on the test, he replied: ‘Yeah. Then we just get him to practise it throughout the week. We just go over it again, again, again.’ 

Asked whether or not the candidate could get in trouble, Mr Attan, wearing jeans and a body warmer, laughed and boasted: ‘Don’t worry, we’ve done it plenty of times before.’ 

When our undercover reporter decided her imaginary cousin’s English was too poor even for this, Mr Attan assured her he could get the certificate anyway, saying: ‘We have to get someone else to do the exam for him so it does cost a lot more.’

But when our reporter said she was happy to pay £500, he said the process would be straightforward, adding: ‘All we need is proof [of] address, proof [of] ID and a passport-size photo and then he’ll receive the certificate in a few weeks.’

The Mail’s fake candidate was enrolled on to the course on our reporter’s second visit to the centre and Mr Attan was handed £500 in cash. 

A few weeks later the certificate was ready for collection at the LPS head office in a community centre in Leyton, East London. 

The certificate, stamped with an Ofqual logo, claimed our candidate had ‘successfully achieved EMD Entry Level Certificate in ESOL International (Entry 3)’.

A letter from LPS confirmed he was ‘initially assessed by a qualified ESOL tutor’, despite staff never meeting him, and said he had attended a course.

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