Saturday, August 9, 2014
Man who posed as Nigerian prince jailed for 7 years in the UK over immigration scam
Posing as a member of the Nigerian Royal family, he mingled with diplomats, captains of industry and senior police officers.
Dr Yilkyes Bala was chauffeur-driven in a black Bentley and hosted sumptuous dinners at the Dorchester to mix with society’s elite. But the supposedly flourishing businessman was in fact a criminal mastermind responsible for an ambitious immigration racket.
Investigators
believe he helped more than 100 of his countrymen, including most of
his extended family, to enter the UK illegally under false and stolen
identities.
At
the centre of the scam was a corrupt Home Office worker who sold him
genuine, but improperly issued, refugee passports for £1,500 each.
Bala then used his network of security companies to give the illegal immigrants references and jobs.
They
could then ‘hit the jackpot’ and obtain a National Insurance number,
giving them full citizen’s rights and access to State benefits.
This week
Bala, 55, was starting a seven year jail sentence from August 1st, after
a jury convicted him of conspiring to breach immigration laws.
A
judge at Canterbury Crown Court said the charming fraudster was 'at the
hub' of a 'significant conspiracy' to beat UK border security.
The
conviction is an embarrassment for those who mixed with Bala, including
the
Nigerian Ambassador and senior officers at City of London Police.
The charming conman referred to himself as ‘His Royal Highness Prince Yilkyes Bala Finok Tonglele PhD State Crown Prince’.
He even carried an identity card claiming to be ‘prince of princes’ in the Nigerian Plateau State Council of Chiefs.
Bala
travelled to Britain in the early 1980s before studying administration
at Greenwich School of Management as part of a philosophy doctorate.
He already
claimed to have a degree from the now-defunct Clayton University, in
Missouri, U.S., long suspected as a ‘buy-a-degree’ college.
He
went on to set up a network of companies and claimed that at one stage
they employed 900 people across Europe, Asia and Africa.
The
core business was supplying security guards to the construction
industry, including one firm based in Knightsbridge, Central London.
His
companies, which included Golden Shield and Mayfair and Knightsbridge
Guarding, also provided alarm monitoring, VIP bodyguards and uniformed
guards for offices.
Within two decades Bala, a father of six, was living in a £1.3million home in leafy Beckenham, South East London.
He joined the Croydon branch of the Masons and sent his daughters to fee-paying Blackheath High School.
But a huge investigation, which Bala claimed cost up to £10 million, unravelled his empire and exposed him as a ruthless conman.
Officials discovered a corrupt Home Office employee based in Croydon had improperly obtained more than 200 refugee passports.
In
genuine cases they are used as travel documents for those claiming
asylum in Britain, often fleeing religious or political persecution.
But the official was illicitly applying for them in the name of non-existent relatives of genuine refugees.
At
least 91 documents were posted to addresses linked to Bala, who ran the
Armour Group chain of companies with offices across the capital.
They
were then used as the foundation for applications to remain in the UK
as he and his accomplices ran rings around immigration officials.
Those
linked to Bala used every trick in the book to beat border controls,
from urgent medical visas to travelling as domestic servants.
Some
were so shameless that they changed their names by deed poll back to
their original identities within weeks of adopting the persona of a
non-existent refugee.
Among those given false identities so they could remain in Britain were Bala’s second wife and his brother.
After his arrest, Bala boasted to officials that he was allowed up to seven wives, ‘and a few more on the side’.
Investigators
found his home stuffed with paperwork linked to his businesses, with
documents in his garage filling two vans alone.
Because of the complex web of his businesses it took the Home Office two years to prepare the case against him.
The illegal immigrants caused chaos in Government systems once they had obtained their new identities.
One
man was uncovered by his fingerprints when he was caught drink driving
on two occasions, first under his real name and then in a false one.
In
some cases, illegal immigrants had already failed to gain citizenship
under one name so simply adopted a new identity to try again.
Official company minutes for Bala’s security companies recorded the same people attending meetings under different names.
Bala's
second wife Giwo Tonglele, 46, was also convicted of conspiracy to
facilitate illegal entry of persons into the UK and was jailed for five
years.
Their
former employee Casmir Ekwuhga, 42, was jailed for four years for
taking part in the conspiracy, holding a refugee passport illegally and
using it to obtain a driving
Jailing them, Judge Heather Norton said the scam was well organised.
David
Fairclough, of the Home Office, said Bala was brought to justice after a
'long, complex and painstaking investigation' and said the case should
serve as a warning to others.
licence fraudulently.Jailing them, Judge Heather Norton said the scam was well organised.
She
said: 'These documents were created to order. Each one of you was
involved in deceiving the immigration authorities. You were at the hub
of the whole enterprise.
'The motive was simple.It was to provide identities for employees, relatives and friends. It was a significant conspiracy.'
More
than 100 illegal immigrants linked to the scam have been arrested, but
only a small number are believed to have been convicted and deported.
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