A Nigerian student told the Old Bailey today (tue)

A Nigerian student told the Old Bailey today (tue) how he parted with pnds stlg 3,000 for a bogus passport which gave him indefinite leave to remain in the UK.

Stanislaw Agbo, 34, acquired the crooked document from immigration ‘specialist’ Christian Jideofo, 40, who ran the scam with two corrupt ‘insiders’ at Gatwick Airport.

At one stage Jideofo feared he was being watched by the authorities so he even asked to use Mr Agbo’s Croydon address for a time to which he could re-route post including fake passports.

It is said Jideofo, a lawyer based at offices in Kilburn High Road, Kilburn, was involved in the massive plot with Guy Emmett, 35, and his wife Elizabeth Emmett, 30, who worked at Gatwick.

The couple are said to have stamped the passports of foreign nationals with bogus endorsements so they could remain in the UK indefinitely.

In return tens of thousands of pounds changed hands in the four-and-a-half year sting which allowed at least 76 illegal entrants into the country, the court was told.

But Mark Gadsden, for the prosecution, told jurors:

‘Significantly 76 is only the visible tip of a much larger iceberg.

‘

The Emmetts, both of Furze Lane, Purley, Surrey, and Jideofo, of Kingston Road, New Barnet, north London, each deny conspiracy to defraud and conspiracy to facilitate the entry of illegal immigrants between January 5, 1992 and June 12, 1996.

Mr Gadsden said Mr Emmett was an immigration officer at Gatwick Airport, principally at the south terminal, from early 1992 until the date of his resignation on June 11, 1996.

Jideofo was a qualified lawyer who ran an immigration consultancy in Kilburn, northwest London.

Jideofo and the Emmetts are said to have provided illegal immigrants with a complete passport service for pnds stlg 3,150.

Mr Agbo told the court how he arrived in the UK in the early 1990s as a student and he immediately applied for political assylum.

He met Jideofo for the first time during 1995 at a function held for Nigerians in the Elephant and Castle, southeast London:

‘He said he was a legal practitioner in immigration and other legal services.

‘I told him I had applied for political asylum.

‘

Mr Agbo explained that he wanted to travel abroad and be sure that he could get back into the UK.

Jideofo told him that he would need another passport in a different name, the court heard.

‘He said he had people who could help him do it for the necessary financial remuneration.

He said they were insiders and that was it.

‘I wanted to know how it was possible.

‘

Jideofo then showed him a bogus passport that had been issued to one of his younger brothers, the jury heard.

The passport included the stamp allowing indefinite leave to enter the UK.

Days later Mr Agbo said he went to Jideofo’s office in Kilburn High Road and he ‘discussed the cost of acquiring a passport.

‘

He was told it was pnds stlg 350 for the actual passport while it would cost a further pnds stlg 3,000 to get the stamp.

Mr Agbo said he paid out pnds stlg 2,000 ‘in cash’ straight away so he could get the document prepared quicker.

‘It was delayed by about five to six weeks,’ he explained.

‘I was called and told to come and collect it and pay the outstanding balance.

‘

But Mr Agbo told the court that before he was due to collect it Jideofo contacted him and asked if he could use his address in Edridge Road, Croydon.

‘He said he had to re-route the correspondence because he suspected he was being watched.

‘

Mr Agbo said a package subsequently arrived at his home by courier containing about three passports.

He said Jideofo arrived at his home in a Mercedes and took the passports away.

Mr Agbo told the jury how just days later he went to Jideofo’s office and he was given his Nigerian passport, in the name Andrew Lawrence Anike, endorsed with the relevant ‘ILE’ stamp – standing for Indefinite Leave to Enter.

Mr Agbo, who knew Jideofo as Chris Obika, said he identified him from a video footage procedure this year.

The trial continues.

ends