A scammer who secured a position at the Home Office to 'fob off' eager customers with fictitious documents after posing as a Home Office officer to collect money for visas has been imprisoned. On Tuesday, October 9, Isleworth Crown Court heard the case of 50-year-old Sanjiv Kapoor, who, while posing as an employee of the government's immigration department, charged two individuals with fees totaling about £30,000 between 2016 and 2019.

When he actually began working at the Home Office in 2021, the fraudster then used his position to knock up false documents to appease the visa buyers. Among the things he did to buy time, Kapoor created a fictitious immigration official, doctored a genuine biometric letter, and left a visa applicant outside a Home Office building for hours while he pretended to advocate for them inside.

Prosecutor Archie McKay said the offending targeted victims who were vulnerable due to their immigration status, and accused Kapoor of trying to establish a 'commercial' operation to prey on the Indian community. "It was so important to them they were prepared to spend thousands of pounds, particularly if it's someone who they think is in an official position," said Mr McKay.

Kapoor, of Denham Green in Buckinghamshire, clutched his left arm and complained of pain as victim impact statements were read to the court. One victim said his ambition to come to the UK had been put on hold, and the effects would be felt on his family 'for years'. Another victim, who was living in the UK, was left 'depressed and ashamed' after losing money borrowed from his family and friends.

The fraud was exposed in March 2022 when Sunil Kumar Patel contacted the High Commission in Delhi, asking for the return of his passport. It was found in a secure safe and had arrived around a year before, addressed to John Bowls, a fake identity. The paperwork in the safe also linked back to Kapoor, who then became the subject of an investigation by the Home Office anti-corruption squad.

It emerged that Kapoor had sent a manipulated email to his personal account, signed off by Nina Turner, another fake identity. Mr McKay said the email was used to 'effectively fob off' Mr Patel, who had paid him £19,000 in 2019 for immigration advice about a Tier 2 Visa Application, under the impression Kapoor held a Home Office position. The fake email bought some time, but after years of complaints and threats to tell the police, Kapoor was forced to give the money back to Mr Patel in April 2021.

In 2016 Kapoor took a £9,200 payment from his gardener, Surinder Singh, under the guise he could get him an extension to his leave to remain and a tourist visa. Kapoor claimed he was already working for the Home Office. When he actually started working there in 2021, he forged emails from immigration authorities to show Mr Singh he was making progress.

In April 2022, he took Mr Singh to a Home Office building in London, went inside and pretended he was discussing his application with officials for two hours. When he emerged, he handed Mr Singh a forged letter for a fake meeting dated later that month.

While the case was investigated by the Home Office anti-corruption unit, Mr McKay said the case was not about corruption. "The reality is this was a fraud, and not a threat to the integrity of the immigration system," he explained.

'A right old mess'

Kapoor left India for the UK in 1988 and became a British citizen in 1994. In 2013, he returned to India to marry his wife, who arrived in the UK on a spousal visa around the time of the offending. Defence counsel Jeanette Ashmole said her client's offending was triggered by debt, that he was candid about his motive, and that it had left him 'in a right old mess'.

"He admits his initial intention was financial gain," she told the court, "That was not because he wanted to sail off into the sun, or go on holiday. At the time he owed his family money. He had not long been married. She came to the UK. She has never worked. He got himself into quite a bit of debt. He took an opportunity to repay it. Now he's in a right old mess."

The need for money, combined with 'pressure from the community', was, Ms Ashmole said, the reason for his crimes. And when he realised he could not pay back the men he had promised visas to, he began faking documents to buy himself more time. "He did not see a way out," added the barrister.

Desperate for cash, the Home Office worker took on a second job at Royal Mail, using work from home days as a way to moonlight under the nose of his government employers. Eventually, however, Kapoor was forced to take sick days to catch up with work. Between August and October 2022, Kapoor faked two sick notes to the Home Office, allowing him to take home £11,000 in sick pay.

When Kapoor was arrested and questioned, he made confessions to what was known at the time. He was sacked from his job at the Home Office, but has since been offered a job elsewhere working in IT, though not for a Government agency.

Kapoor admitted counts of fraud by false representation, one count of proving an immigration service in contravention of a prohibition, multiple forgery offences, making an article for use in fraud, and committing an act to facilitate the commission of a breach of immigration laws.

Ms Ashmole said he was 'very very remorseful' and had never known a client to be so anxious. Calling for a suspended sentence, the barrister added: "He's got a happy family but he's dropped a huge bomb on them."

'A cruel fraud'

District Judge Cooper said Kapoor's use of fake documents and emails to buy time gave Mr Singh 'false hope' caused Mr Patel 'distress'. The judge also said the provision of immigration advice was for gain. In relation to the faked sicknotes while he was moonlighting for Royal Mail, she said he could have relinquished a job while he had reasonable alternatives.

Kapoor was jailed for two years and six months, a two year three month sentence for main fraud offences, and a consecutive three month sentence for forging sick notes.

"The serious nature of your offending over a period of time where people were subject to a cruel fraud, a very cruel fraud, I do not believe I can reduce this further to a sentence that can be suspended," said Judge Cooper, later adding: "I was trying to get it to two, but I could not find a way to get it to two."

Kapoor will be pursued for the outstanding cash under the Proceeds of Crime Act.