According to the United Kingdom Border Control Agency, Mr. Finest Ifeanyi Arojie, 43, illegally entered the UK in 2005 and the following year, he obtained a copy of the birth certificate of a British man, James Samuel Walters, who died in New York in 1989.
In 2007 Arojie used the birth certificate to obtain a British passport in Mr Walters' identity, stating that he had lost his previous passport. There was no record of Mr Walters' death because it occurred outside the UK.
Arojie then used his fake British identity to gain employment as a forklift driver in Dunstable in July 2008.
In April 2009 Arojie sponsored the entry to the UK of a man claiming to be his 16-year-old son and calling himself Bright Walters. The pair lived at Old Bedford Road, Luton.
The scam started to unravel in December 2011 when UK Immigration officers from the criminal and financial investigations team interviewed a woman who claimed that she had been approached about taking part in a sham marriage by an African man using the name James Samuel Walters.
The officers discovered Walters was in Nigeria attempting to obtain visa for two children to reside in the UK and as a result of this investigation, both of these visas were refused.
On 16 December 2011, Arojie, who was travelling using the Walters passport, was stopped by our officers as he arrived at Heathrow airport.
On 11 January 2012 Bright Walters was arrested at his home address, where officers also found his British passport.
While Bright Walters was charged with obtaining leave to enter or remain in the UK by deception and possession of a false identity document and remanded in custody, Arojie was charged with 7 offences including fraud and conspiracy to facilitate a breach of the UK's immigration laws.
It was also gathered that UK Immigration officers continued to investigate the scam and, following enquiries with the Embassy officers in Nigeria, they became convinced that Bright Walters' real identity was Goodness Iroro Sokoh and that his true age was 24. Walters disputes this.
Arojie and Walters were convicted on 1 June following a week-long trial at Luton crown court. On the 15 June, Arojie was sentenced to 2 years and 8 months while Walters was jailed for 12 months.
According to the UK Border Agency said "Finest Arojie coldly took on the identity of a deceased British citizen to live and work illegally in the UK and to illicitly bring another man into the country. His callous crime showed no respect to the late Mr Walters or his family. It was a cruel act motivated by pure self-interest and I am pleased that we have been able to bring him before the courts"
"Our specialist crime teams of immigration and police officers working together are cracking down on all forms of immigration abuse, be this identity theft, document fraud or sham marriages"
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