An Indian-origin man who overstayed in the UK on a student visa has been jailed for 15 months for using a fake passport to return to India, Kent Online reports.
26-year-old Tejinder Singh was caught at Dover, 125 kms from London, trying to leave for Milan en-route to India in November.
He claimed to be working as a builder in London who lived in Ilford, East London.
He told the court he was returning to India to get married and had paid £7,500 for the fraudulent Bulgarian passport.
But Judge Heather Norton of Canterbury Crown Court told him she didn’t believe a word of his wedding story.
She said that the court regularly dealt with cases where people were caught breaching immigration rules.
She added: “It is rare in my experience for people to be completely honest ... and you are no exception.
“I don’t believe a word of the story given to me today... it didn’t make any sense.
“There was no need for you to obtain false documents or have to go via Milan to get to India.”
She said the authorities would have sent him home as an ‘overstayer’ if he had presented his Indian passport.
The court heard Singh had £1,000 in cash in his pockets which he claimed was wedding gifts from friends. He admitted to having two fake documents and was jailed for 15 months.
