A SMARMY solicitor signs up another bogus asylum seeker who could earn him up to £10,000 of YOUR cash.
Nadeem Malik is one of scores of British-based solicitors raking in a total of £200million a year from legal aid fees by telling illegal immigrants how to LIEand CHEAT their way into the UK.
But Malik didn't realise just how "bogus" this asylum seeker was— and ended up giving his advice to an undercover News of the World reporter.
Posing as an illegal Pakistani immigrant, she joined the queue at Malik Partnership solicitors in Bradford on Friday.
"Let me outline basic procedure," said company owner Malik.
"People who get asylum have to prove their life is in danger in their home country. We have to think about why your life is in danger. If you say the police themselves are after you, it's better."
Our reporter said she had arrived illegally from Pakistan three weeks ago and simply wanted to stay in the country.
Memorise
The lawyer explained she would have to lie to stay in the country and get the right to scrounge. She said she would go along with whatever story the brief thought best.
"The thing is you have to give the interview, I can't accompany you to that," he said. "You have to memorise everything. We have to make something based on this."
His company is one of a handful in West Yorkshire who have a legal aid franchise, but they specialise in squandering the taxpayers' cash on helping illegal immigrants masquerade as asylum seekers.
The firm even has an office in Lahore, Pakistan, which advises clients wanting to enter Britain.
Malik then explained how to get cash and a place to stay.
"You only get support and accommodation if you apply at the airport or within three days of entering," he said. "They will interview you and, if they believe you, give you accommodation and expenses.
"You will have to do some research. Find out which flight arrives from Islamabad to Heathrow or wherever."
Malik handed our girl the address of the Home Office and asked her to return after registering. "We'll do it on legal aid," he said. "You won't have to pay."
ONE undercover reporter posed as a newly-arrived Albanian and rang J. Gandhi and Associates, a solicitors in Wembley, north London, for advice.
He spoke to Albanian interpreter Damian Zefi, right, who told him: "We will sort everything. Come and see me. My fee is £200 but once you are accepted the solicitor and everything else is free. The British government pays for it all."
Next day at the office, after helping to prepare a statement, Zefi said: "I'll test you. If you forget it and go to the Home Office they'll send you to a detention centre."
After putting the £200 in his pocket, Zefi led our man to the solicitor upstairs.
There Jyoti Gandhi, who runs the firm, produced a Legal Aid form and asked him to sign. Gandhi asked questions which were answered by the interpreter who had invented an amazing sob story to fool the Home Office officials.
"He's a gypsy," explained Zefi. "His father killed a cop because he was running a protection racket and wanted money. The victim's family are after him. He was also beaten by authorities because he's a gypsy."
Zefi handed over a letter on the solicitor's headed paper giving our man a false name, a false arrival date and claiming he was here due to fear of persecution.
"Take this to the Home Office and they will fingerprint you and ask questions. Remember your lines and you'll be OK," said Zefi.
LEANING over a pile of files on his desk, crooked solicitor Zain-ul-Abedin Jatoi asked an undercover News of the World reporter: "You want to file a fake asylum case?"
The "illegal aid" brief of Sheikh and Co, Southall, west London, made it clear he would file a false asylum claim on her behalf—as long as it was totally believable.
Grey-haired Jatoi (right) explained: "You have to get some proof. I'm a solicitor so it's very unethical for me to make a story up for you.
"You will get legal aid and so you won't have to pay, but you need to have a case—which you don't have."
Then he came up with an answer for our girl who was posing as an illegal Pakistani immigrant. "Sit with a friend, make up, invent a story," he said. "It must be a full story with dates and events, this happened on this date and that on another.
"You have to say this tragic event happened.
"For proof you need a piece in your local newspaper about a raid at your house, and how you have reported it to the police."
He said a copy of the police report of "persecution" was essential.
Bogus police reports are often obtained by bribing hard-up cops in home countries, or they are simply forged.
Jatoi—who has been in the country for only three years himself—asked if the reporter had a photograph of a smashed-up car with broken windows.
"You can then say stones were thrown at you, things like this," he said."Have you ever been injured? Do you have scars?"
When our reporter told him she had a scar on her knee after falling off her bike at the age of three, he seized on it as another possible detail for the story.
Jatoi advised her: "You can say, ‘They threw bricks. One hit me on my knee.' You could get a doctor's note.
"I really should not be doing this," he added, "but if you can make up a full story then I'll be able to tell you whether it's strong enough.
"Speak to me on the phone on Monday. Think of a story and then talk to me."
Sheikh and Co is one of Britain's "asylum millionaires" because they earned more than £1million from Legal Aid claims last year. Each case is a potential £10,000 for the firm.
Pakistani Jatoi—who has the letters LLB, MBA and LLM after his name—also advised our reporter she should consider marrying an EU citizen.
"Not a British citizen," he said. "If you marry someone from here they will want you to go home and get entry clearance. But EU citizens have a right to live here."
THE vetting system which weeds out crooked briefs is about as useful as the government's asylum seeker rules designed to keep illegal immigrants out.
One of Britain's biggest immigration solicitors, Malik Laws, had its Legal Aid contract withdrawn after it emerged the firm in Cheetham Hill, Manchester, were submitting bogus claims.
The company is run by crooked Pakistani Liaquat Malik, who boasts qualifications including a PhD, master of law degree and a diploma in public law.
But the 44-year-old father of two forged an A-level certificate to get on a law course at Manchester Polytechnic and to get a grant.
Guilty
Malik, from Rochdale, was convicted and given a conditional discharge. Three years later he appeared at Manchester Crown Court and pleaded guilty to deception and breaching his conditional discharge.
He'd used his A-level— voided after his previous conviction—to get on a business course at Salford University and another grant.
And despite being disciplined twice and ordered not to "act as a solicitor" he got approval to practise as a registered foreign lawyer.
This is a scheme allowing people qualified abroad to work as solicitors here with limited powers. Malik is currently under investigation by the Office for the Supervision of Solicitors.
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