How illegal immigrants used fake IDs to get council jobs

01 May 2008
By Andrew Hewitt
Exclusive

TWO illegal immigrants worked for Doncaster Council for several years pocketing tens of thousands of pounds they were not entitled to.

And it is believed another three former council employees have been charged with offences after working for the authority while suspected of being illegal immigrants.

Home Office officials swooped on homes in the borough after becoming suspicious ADVERTISEMENTthat a number of people had used false documents to obtain employment with the local authority.

Five people were charged with offences including possessing a fake passport and deception.

The council said it had robust measures in place to combat illegal immigrants getting a job with the authority but would not say what those were.

Two of the five to be charged following the raids by immigration officials have appeared in court.

Prisilla Sarpon and Maria Chisadza, both from Africa, entered the UK using a visitor's visa in 1997 and 2002 respectively, but failed to return home when they expired.

The pair used forged identification documents as well as a bogus Home Office letter stating they had right to remain in the UK and were entitled to work to con the council into employing them as cleaners.

Doncaster Crown Court was told Ghanian national Sarpon, 35, used a National Insurance card and the Home Office letter to trick the council into employing her.

She illegally earned just over £34,000 between November 2004 and March 18, 2008 when she was arrested.

Chisadza, 42, from Zimbabwe, earned just under £6,400 as a cleaner at Bentley Training Centre between December 10 2003 and March 18 this year when she was also arrested.

As well as a fake Home Office letter she spent nearly £300 on a false South African passport to get a job with the council.

Both claimed they had escaped violent backgrounds in Africa and would be scared to return to their country where their children still lived.
Chisadza said her brother, who was in a political party, had been murdered in front of her by members of an opposition party and she would be targeted if she returned to Zimbabwe.

Sarpon, of Windle Road, Hexthorpe, and Chisadza, of Sandringham Road, Intake, both admitted possession of a false identification document and obtaining a pecuniary advantage by deception.

Sarpon was jailed for eight months minus the 36 days she has served on remand.

Chisadza was given a six month sentence suspended for 12 months and ordered to undertake 80 hours unpaid work.

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith will now decide whether the pair should be deported.

Sentencing Sarpon, Judge Jacqueline Davies said: "You must understand offences of this kind are extremely serious.

"I can impose no sentence other than custody. Offences like this are prevalent and becoming more common."

When asked after the hearing by the Free Press about Sarpon's employment, Doncaster Council confirmed she was contracted to work 32-and-a-half hours a week as a cleaner at £6 an hour.

It added Sarpon had to provide a reference as a condition of employment but would not say who supplied it.

The authority also did not answer what documents EU citizens and non-EU citizens needed to provide to get a job; whether it had launched an investigation following the arrests and whether any staff had been disciplined.

The council also did not say whether it had introduced new measures to stop illegal immigrants obtaining work following the arrests.

Paul Hart, managing director said: "Our recruitment processes incorporating relevant checks are robust - however it can be very difficult to detect forged documents. As soon as there were concerns about the status of this employee (Sarpon) we worked with the Border and Immigration Agency to bring about a swift conclusion."

A Home Office spokesman said: "We will continue to remove record numbers of foreign law breakers and attack illegal working because it undercuts British wages."
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