UK visa applicants arrested for fraud
A married Sri Lankan couple who applied together for UK visas were arrested yesterday.
UK Visas and Immigration run the arrest programme in partnership with the Sri Lankan Fraud Investigations Bureau.
A married Sri Lankan couple who applied together for UK visas were arrested yesterday for using deception in their applications and unofficially tampering with their passports.
The applicants were referred by the UK Visas and Immigration to Fraud Investigations Bureau police in Colombo. The visa applicants had attempted to conceal previous UK refusal stamps in their passports and had denied being refused in their applications. The two visa applications have been refused and the arrested applicants will have a 10 year ban on travel to the UK. In addition they now face prosecution for their actions from Sri Lankan authorities.
UK Visas and Immigration Operations Manager, Tony Williams, said:
“We will not tolerate abuse of the UK’s Immigration rules. Where we see abuse, we will take action against those involved. I would strongly advise visa applicants not to submit false documents or other forms of deception.”
The UK Visas and Immigration team uncovered this deception because trained forgery officers conduct extensive checks on documents submitted with visa applications.