Five fraudsters in the UK who falsely claimed £13 million in tax repayments from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) over a six-year period, and facilitated around 900 bogus visa applications, have been sentenced to a total of more than 31 years in jail.
Abul Kalam Muhammad and Rezaul Karim (42), were the ringleaders of the organised crime group. He and his four accomplices set up 79 bogus companies and created fake documentation which were used by Bangladeshi nationals in fraudulent visa applications.
The immigration fraud was uncovered in 2011 when the Home Office identified a suspicious pattern in a series of points-based applications for tier one general and entrepreneur visas.
The defendants were sentenced at Southwark Crown Court. The five fraudsters- AKM Karim got 10 years and six months, Enamul Karim nine years and four months and Ullah five years and ten months. Trivedi was handed a three-year jail sentence, and Uddin two years and six months
