Illegal immigrant moved to Dursley and made over £100,000 (From Gazette Series)

Illegal immigrant moved to Dursley with fake passport and earned over £100,000 with Crest Nicholson Gloucester Crown Court told

8:40am Tuesday 26th February 2013 in News By Gazette reporter

A NIGERIAN illegal immigrant who used a fake passport to land a job which earned him more than £100,000 has been jailed for a year.

Abimbola Olusanya, 40, of Oak Drive, Dursley, entered the UK in 2004 with a six months visitor visa - but never left.

He paid £5,000 for a fake passport in the name of a Nigerian who is entitled to live in the UK and then proceeded to get a job, marry, and start a family.

Gloucester Crown Court was told that using the bogus passport he got employment with Crest Nicholson in Gloucester in February 2006 and worked there until June 2012, earning a total of £101,721.75.

There was no complaint about the work he did - but by taking the job he was depriving a legitimate candidate the chance of the work, the court heard.

His con was detected in November last year when he was arrested and he reluctantly admitted his guilt, said prosecutor Anna Midgeley.

"Initially he suggested he had been trafficked to the UK but ultimately admitted that was not the case," she said.

"He said he had paid £5,000 for the false passport in order to be able to work and live in the UK."

Sarah Jenkins, defending, said: "He has attempted to regularise his position in this country. He has made an application to the Home Office in his proper name and that application is now on hold pending the outcome of these proceedings.

"During the time he has been in the UK he has met his partner and they have been together for four years. They were married last year. They have a three-year-old son together.

"It is really those family circumstances which are the basis of his application to stay in the UK."

Jailing Olusanya, Recorder Michael Selfe said his criminality was not earning £100,000 but getting the job by false pretences in the first place.

"Use of false documents is of considerable importance to the security of the UK and as such purchase of those documents requires in my judgement an immediate sentence of imprisonment.

"Whether that means there will be automatic deportation is not a matter for me."

Olusanya had pleaded guilty to using the passport on February 12, 2006, to induce Crest Nicholson to accept it as genuine.

He also admitted that by working for Crest Nicholson he had failed to observe an Immigration Act restriction preventing him from having employment in the UK.

And he further admitted possessing a fake UK driving licence with 'improper intent' between January 27, 2011 and November 29, 2012.

Finally, he admitted possessing a false identity document, a UK passport, with intent between November 2 and 20, 2007.