Three Sikh men helped nearly 70 Afghan illegal immigrants sneak into the UK using the real passports of British Sikhs in a £600,000 scam, a court heard.
Border officials were unable to distinguish between the illegal immigrants who masqueraded as the genuine passport holders because Sikh men are allowed to wear turbans in their ID documents.
The gang would travel to France and hand over stolen or genuine passports to waiting immigrants which looked like them.
Once the immigrants got to the UK, the gang would recycle the passports passing them on to others trying to sneak into the country.
Cousins Daljit Kapoor, 41 and Harmit Kapoor, 42, and Davinder Chawla, 43, a member of the same extended family had all previously pleaded guilty to running the scam which charged each family over £,9000. They provided Sikhs from the war-torn country with stolen passports or those of their own family members who most looked like them, so they could pass themselves off as British citizens.
The three men appeared at Inner London Crown Court today for the start of a Newton hearing after disagreements between the prosecution and the defence over their level of involvement in the scam.
The court heard the total value of the conspiracy was around £620,000.
However the court was told there would be no Newton hearing in relation to Daljit Kapoor, following an agreement between the prosecution and defence over his basis of plea.
For the conspiracy the trio were paid up to £9,300 to get entry into the UK.
In total 69 individuals travelled to the UK on the passports were identified and 59 did not make an asylum application.
Prosecutor Alexandra Felix said: “The central aim was to gain financially At least one of conspirators with the a passport would travel to France to enable to asylum seeker to travel to the UK using this passport.
“These were passports with identities belonging to their families or others which were reported lost or stolen in the days before their use. The result of the conspiracy was there was entry into the UK that must have been in breach of immigration Law.
