Co-operating against crime

More than 2,260 drug smugglers, people traffickers and fraudsters have been prosecuted by the new UK Border Agency working with police, the Borders and Immigration Minister Phil Woolas said today.

The prosecutions were highlighted at the first joint national UK Border Agency and Association of Chief Police Officers conference in Birmingham.

More than 300 police officers have been seconded into immigration crime teams across the country, and since April this year more than £500,000 has been seized, helping to disrupt criminal operators.

The conference heard how a simple Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority referral led to a Manchester flat being searched by officers who uncovered a multi–million-pound operation dealing in staged road traffic accidents.

Eight people were arrested and the main suspect, Irfan Manzoor, 33, was convicted of identity card offences and received a nine-month prison sentence.

Seven others are currently on bail.

Fifty mobile phones, three laptops and reams of documentary evidence were seized over two days.

Mr Woolas, the MP for Oldham East and Saddlewortth, which includes Milnrow and Newhey, said: “As Al Capone found out, you only need one conviction to bring down a criminal house of cards. Immigration powers can prove the solution to prosecuting and removing foreign criminals from the UK.

“The agency’s frontline staff work collaboratively with police, local authorities and government agencies. We are creating a hostile environment for organised criminals who prey on vulnerable immigrants, and taking action against individuals who break the law.”