Coventry Airport illegal immigrant worker jailed
20.04.07
A judge has recommended that an illegal Zimbabwean immigrant who sparked a security scare after securing employment at Coventry Airport should be deported after serving an eight-month jail term. Marlon Masina, 24, admitted possessing a false identity documents and obtaining employment by deception.
The court heard that Masina arrived in this country in 2002. Because he had a valid passport, a letter from a college and a sponsor, he was given a visa to allow him to remain until June 2003. However, an extension to that visa was twice refused and Masina who became an overstayer, moved from the accommodation his sponsor had been providing for him.
The following year he applied for a job through the Workforce agency in Coventry, producing his passport, his college identification and a letter purporting to have come from the Home Office allowing him to remain indefinitely. The letter was false and had been bought for £300.
Using the forged documents, Masina got a job as a security officer at the airport after using the letters to con an employment agency, the Warwick Crown Court heard. He worked on airport parking security, allowing access to 'red pass restricted areas' at the airport.
Masina was arrested at the airport in November after checks were carried out when he applied for a job which would have involved him going into more restricted areas. Immigration officers searched his home and found a second letter purporting to be from the Home Office giving him permission to remain indefinitely.
Stefan Kolodynski, in mitigation, said Masina had resorted to criminality to stay in the UK and to find work to support himself. He said all he wanted was to leave Zimbabwe and the difficulties there behind and make a better life for himself in the UK.
Jailing Masina for eight months Judge James Pyke told him: 'You have shown some persistence in thwarting the immigration authorities of this country.' The judge recommended that Masina, who also admitted remaining in the UK beyond the permitted period, should be deported after serving his sentence - although people are not currently being sent back to Zimbabwe.
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