A legal advisor from Hayes was jailed on Thursday 18 August for 4.5 years for masterminding a major immigration scam.
Indian national Ravi Gupta, 41, was arrested by our officers from the West London immigration crime team during a dawn raid on his home in Carlyon Road, Hayes in November 2010.
Gupta, an accredited immigration law advisor, supplied dozens of his clients with fake documents, letters, education certificates and payslips to aid immigration applications, helping them to falsify details of their income. He would typically charge up to £5,000 for each application.
His scam was uncovered following an undercover investigation into the practices used by his company, Surge Global Solutions.
Gupta admitted 14 charges of assisting illegal immigration and an additional charge of obtaining leave to remain in the UK by deception. A judge at Isleworth Crown Court sentenced him to 4.5 years in prison and recommended that he be deported at the end of his sentence.
Chris Foster, immigration crime team, UK Border Agency said:
Indian national Ravi Gupta, 41, was arrested by our officers from the West London immigration crime team during a dawn raid on his home in Carlyon Road, Hayes in November 2010.
Gupta, an accredited immigration law advisor, supplied dozens of his clients with fake documents, letters, education certificates and payslips to aid immigration applications, helping them to falsify details of their income. He would typically charge up to £5,000 for each application.
His scam was uncovered following an undercover investigation into the practices used by his company, Surge Global Solutions.
Gupta admitted 14 charges of assisting illegal immigration and an additional charge of obtaining leave to remain in the UK by deception. A judge at Isleworth Crown Court sentenced him to 4.5 years in prison and recommended that he be deported at the end of his sentence.
Chris Foster, immigration crime team, UK Border Agency said:
'Gupta ran a sophisticated and lucrative scam, designed to help people who would otherwise have no right to be here stay in the UK.'I am delighted that we have been able to bring him to justice, along with a number of people who knowingly benefited from his deception.'His guilty pleas are an indication of the level of professionalism of my team in combating this type of crime and we are determined to continue tackling organised abuse of our immigration laws.'
Proceeds of Crime Act proceedings, designed to confiscate any money Gupta may have made from the scan have now begun.
Sentenced alongside Gupta were Tapinder Singh, 28, and Gurvinderpal Singh, 26, both of Benen-Stock Road in Stanwell Moor, Middlesex. Both admitted obtaining leave to remain by deception and money laundering offences and were each sentenced to 6 months in prison.
A further 4 men and a woman who were also involved in the scam had previously been sentenced to jail terms of between 4 and 8 months after admitting charges of obtaining leave to remain in the UK by deception.
Legal proceedings involving another 6 people suspected of being clients of Ravi Gupta are ongoing.
Damian Green, Minister for Immigration, said:
Sentenced alongside Gupta were Tapinder Singh, 28, and Gurvinderpal Singh, 26, both of Benen-Stock Road in Stanwell Moor, Middlesex. Both admitted obtaining leave to remain by deception and money laundering offences and were each sentenced to 6 months in prison.
A further 4 men and a woman who were also involved in the scam had previously been sentenced to jail terms of between 4 and 8 months after admitting charges of obtaining leave to remain in the UK by deception.
Legal proceedings involving another 6 people suspected of being clients of Ravi Gupta are ongoing.
Damian Green, Minister for Immigration, said:
'This case shows we have stepped up action to tackle serious and organised abuse of our immigration system. The message is clear - the UK is no longer an easy touch.'This summer we are targeting our efforts on breaking up the gangs behind visa scams; hitting rogue employers who repeatedly break the rules and doing more than ever to stop unwanted people coming to the UK.'
The West London immigration crime team is a specialist unit of police officers seconded from the Metropolitan Police working alongside our warranted officers to investigate organised immigration crime.
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