Sunday, September 4, 2011

A Nigerian fraudster will be allowed to stay in Britain under human rights laws

Philip Olawale Omotunde took part in a elaborate scam which involved claiming social security pay-outs for fictional disabled babies. The Home Office tried to deport the Nigerian but he won the right to stay in Britain after arguing that it would breach his "right to private and family life" to separate him from his six-year-old son. Extraordinarily he should not have been in the country in the first place. Omotunde came to Britain as a visitor in 1991, when he was 28, and overstayed his visa. The Home Office made a decision to deport him in 1996 but no action was taken. The last Labor government granted him indefinite leave to remain under a "regularization scheme" in 2002. Omotunde's case highlights the way the "family life" rules under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights are being used to overturn the British government's efforts to throw foreign crooks out of Britain. Since immigration judges made their decision in May 2011, he has been sent to jail again for offenses relating to his failure to pay a £45,000 confiscation order for his part in the benefits fraud. Omotunde, 48, was part of an organized crime gang which stole British people's names, dates of birth and National Insurance numbers to commit a complex web of frauds. He had already been convicted in 2006 of working as an illegal taxi tout, and fined £100. The fraud ring set up false addresses and bank accounts to extract hundreds of thousands of pounds per month from the HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) tax credits system. The ring claimed tax credits for fake disabled babies aged under one. After his conviction the Home Office served notice on Omotunde that he was liable to be deported because his son, who was born in April 2005, was young enough to adapt to life in Nigeria. Omotunde appealed to the immigration tribunal. His lawyers told the tribunal that he was the "dominant carer" for his young son. He claimed that the child was not being looked after by its mother, who at the time was also an illegal immigrant, but by her sister and a "team" which included two "pastors". The tribunal refused to overturn the deportation order, but five days after their decision the Home Office granted Omotunde's son British citizenship, a move which strengthened the Nigerian criminal's argument that he could not be separated from his family. He brought a new appeal to senior judges who ruled that the son cannot now be deported and it would be unreasonable to expect him to move to Nigeria. Omotunde is currently serving 16 months at Verne prison on the Isle of Portland in Dorset, but when freed he will be allowed to remain in Britain indefinitely. Omotunde and his fellow criminals made 200 false claims using 88 web-based bank accounts during a five-month period in 2004. He was arrested in March 2007, convicted of conspiracy to commit fraud and conspiracy to transfer criminal property at Croydon Crown Court in June 2008.

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