A Congolese immigration offender who used a fake French passport to work illegally in the UK has been jailed for nine months.
Mbaki passport was fake
Dimonekene Mbaki approached several recruitment agencies in Cardiff and Newport and produced a French passport under the name ‘Robert Berrin’ with his photo on it as proof of his entitlement to work in the UK as an EU citizen.
Mbaki, 35, worked on assembly lines at bakeries before one of the agencies became concerned about the passport and alerted the UK Border Agency.
After confirming the passport was fake, officers arrested Mbaki on 7 December 2009 and charged him with possessing a false document and fraud.
Mbaki, of Railway Terrace in Splott, initially denied the offences, claiming that he had never applied for work at recruitment agencies and that the forged passport was not his.
He later pleaded guilty after investigating officers staged identity parades where fellow agency workers confirmed Mbaki was their colleague ‘Robert Berrin’.
Investigators from our immigration crime team also found Mbaki’s fingerprints on job application forms submitted to the agencies.
He was sentenced to nine months imprisonment by Recorder Winston Roddick QC at Newport Crown Court on Thursday 10 June.
The UK Border Agency will seek his deportation from the UK on his release.
Steve Whitmarsh-Knight of the UK Border Agency immigration crime team said:
‘We welcome the jail term handed down in this case. Hopefully, it will be a deterrent to others who think they can cheat the system.
‘Using a forged or counterfeit passport is a serious offence and anyone who does so can expect to face criminal proceedings, jail and removal from the country.
‘We work closely with responsible employers and educate them on how to spot forged documents. Many are now raising concerns with us when they believe they are being deceived by individuals.
‘The UK Border Agency’s immigration crime team in Cardiff is cracking down hard on this type of offence committed by foreign nationals.’
