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UK judge wants airport alert Zim man deported
By
Staff Reporter
A
BRITISH judge has recommended that an illegal Zimbabwean immigrant who
sparked a security scare at Coventry Airport should be deported after
serving an eight-month jail term.
Marlon Masina, 24, got a job as a security officer at the airport after using forged letters to con an employment agency, the Warwick Crown Court heard.
A judge told Masina on Wednesday: "You have shown some persistance in thwarting the immigration authorities of this country."
Kathryn Roughton, prosecuting, said Masina worked on car park security, allowing access to "red pass restricted areas" at the airport which handles hundreds of customers everyday.
Masina admitted possessing a false identity documents and obtaining employment by deception.
The court heard that Masina arrived in this country in 2002.
Roughton said because he had a valid pasport, a letter from a college and a sponsor, he was given a visa to allow him to remain until June 2003.
However, an extension to that visa was twice refused and Masina who became an overstayer, moved from the accomodation his sponsor had been providing for him.
The following year he applied for a job through the Workforce agency in Coventry, producing his passport, his college identification and a letter purporting to have come from the Home Office allowing him to remain indefinitely. The letter was false and had been bought for £300, the court heard.
He was arrested at the airport in November after further checks were carried out when he applied for a job which would have involved him going into more restricted areas.
Immigration officers searched his home in St Pauls Road Foleshill and found a second letter purporting to be from the Home Office giving him permision to remain indefinitely.
Stefan Kolodynski, in mitigation, said Masina had resorted to criminality to stay in this country and to find work to support himself. He said all he wanted to do was to leave Zimbabwe and the difficulties there behind and make a better life for himself in this country.
Jailing Masina for eight months Judge James Pyke told him: "You became an illegal immigrant in this country in June 2003 and in the early part of the following year you used a forged document to obtain employment. In the course of that employment, you were given security clearance at a local airport. You have shown some persistance in thwarting the immigration authorities of this country."
The judge recommended that Masina, who also admitted remaining in the UK beyond the permitted period, should be deported after serving his sentence although people are not currently being sent back to Zimbabwe.
A spokeswoman for Coventry Airport said after receiving the required documentation from the employment agency, Masina was employed by Coventry Airport in a non restricted area on car park patrol.
But he later applied to work in a restricted zone on security duties and it was while further checks were carried out on him for this post that he was suspected of using false documentation and arrested.
A spokesman for
Workforce Direct of Courtland Avenue, Coventry, said: "As an employment
agency we carry out stringent checks on all our staff and had no reason
to suspect Masina ha supplied false documentation."
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