A people smuggler has been jailed today after conspiring to bring 16 Albanian migrants to the UK by providing them with fake EU passports and making fraudulent airline bookings.
Albanian national Sait Ruci used a fake Italian ID and stole the identify of an innocent man to open bank accounts used to buy airline tickets to the UK.
The migrants, all from Albania, paid for a fake EU passport and an air ticket to the UK. Criminals can charge upwards of £10,000 per person for this type of facilitation.
Ruci was sentenced to three years at Isleworth Crown Court today, for conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration.
In many cases the fraudulent documents and bookings were identified by the airlines or European airport authorities before departure. Sixteen individuals travelled to the UK but their documents were detected as fakes by Border Force officers on arrival.
With the cooperation of airports and airlines, Home Office investigators were able to link the bookings together and trace them back to Ruci.
Analysis of Ruci's mobile phone uncovered even more fake documents ready to be used for criminal purposes.
Ruci will now be treated as a foreign national offender and could be removed from the UK after referral to the Home Office.
Chris Foster, Deputy Director of Criminal and Financial Investigations at the Home Office, said:
Today's sentencing is the result of strong collaboration between agencies to bring this people smuggler to justice.
Today we have removed another link in the chain of organised criminals who facilitate illegal entry to the UK.
I am grateful for the tireless efforts of the officers who identified and investigated this complex case.
