Fake passport factory pair jailed

Undercover police have smashed a gang who sold fake passports to failed asylumseekers at £3,000 a time.

Irfan Alyas, an illegal immigrant from Pakistan, boasted to an undercover officer that he could supply up to 50 British passports.

He and his associate Abdul Majid Ali were each sentenced to two years in prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy.

The pair were also ordered to pay back some of the profits from their crime, which the court heard netted them £125,000 over three years.

Alyas, 36, formerly of Wembley, was told to pay £30,000 and Ali, 51, of Neasden, was told to pay £10,000.

Police believe Ali was the organiser of the scheme and Alyas supplied passports on his behalf to members of the Asian community whose asylum applications were rejected.

Both sold passports to undercover officers - Ali for £3,000, Alyas for £3,500 - thought to have been produced at a passport factory in Dagenham raided by police in 2002.

Ali, held last September at Heathrow as he returned from Pakistan, had obtained British citizenship days before his arrest.

Alyas is a former UK official of Pakistani opposition party the Muslim League.