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An Immigration Adviser Has Been Spared Jail Sentence After he Offered Services Post Cancellation

Muhammed Shakoori, 61, was fined 500 in June 2010 for running an immigration business illegally from his home in Rusholme.

His license was revoked in October 2009 but he continued to work as an adviser. The father wrote two letters charging 700 and offering services to a Jamaican national, Alphonso Bartley, who had been refused a visa to remain in Britain.

The first was penned in November 2009, just a month after Shakoori’s licence had been removed, and the other in 2010, just three months after he had been convicted of two immigration offences.

The court heard that Shakoori had advised Mr Bartley to seek a judicial review over the refusal to allow him to remain in Britain.

Shakoori, of Dickenson Road, pleaded not guilty to providing immigration services when not qualified to do so but a jury convicted him following a trial. He was acquitted of a second count of providing immigration advice when not qualified to do so.

He was given a six month suspended prison sentence at Manchester Crown Court. The Recorder Suzanne Goddard QC told him that he was notified about his license being cancelled on October 14, 2009 and the first letter that he wrote to a client after the date of cancellation of his registration was well within the knowledge that he could not represent any client.

The second letter in issue which was written on September 27, 2010 was actually past his conviction before the crown court and by which time he should have known that he could not engage in these activities for sure in any shape or form.

The court heard that during the investigation when two immigration officers went to his premises at Dickenson Road he was seen gathering up documents inside the premises after the doorbell had been pressed and putting them into a briefcase and taking it upstairs and then lying that he didn’t have a briefcase.

When the officers tried to gather the items together to try to take them away he had snatched that bundle off her and actively tried to stop those two officers from carrying out their duties of executing the search warrant at his premises.

She cautioned him from carrying out any immigration services at all whether paid or unpaid saying that he would be brought back to court and he would face prison sentence.

An electronically-monitored curfew was also imposed on Shakoori for 28 days, during which time he must remain inside his home in Rusholme between 7pm and 7am.

He was also ordered to pay 250 compensation to Mr Bartley and 500 towards prosecution costs.

He said he may take his case to the European Court of Human Rights.

By Rusty

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