More Government Lies and Inaction on Immigration

A friend of mine is a police woman.

She said to me this a few weeks ago 'You people in the BNP make me laugh. You know nothing about what is really going on in this country. If you knew what most police officers knew about immigration and what immigrants are doing in this country you would be terrified. If you really want to know about the levels of immigrant crime go to any court in the country and take a look at the listings in the court for cases on that day. You will see the majority of cases are relating to immigrants. The BNP know nothing about what is really going on and how bad things really are'.

Looks like she was right.

It appears that evil triumphs when good men are sacked for trying to do their jobs.



Silenced...the sham marriage whistleblower: Immigration officer claims he warned bosses but was forced out

By Sam Greenhill

Last updated at 8:25 AM on 7th August 2010

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Ignored: Mr Sprague was sacked in 2009

Ignored: Mr Sprague was sacked in 2009

Hundreds of illegal immigrants have been allowed to get away with sham marriages because government officials dared not intervene, a whistleblower claims today.

Neville Sprague, who was a chief immigration officer, accuses his former bosses at the UK Border Agency of turning a blind eye to the scandal.

Illegal immigrants use fake marriages to apply for 'spouse' visas to enable them to stay in Britain and enjoy free healthcare, education and benefits.

In a shocking exposé, Mr Sprague claims he fought in vain to clamp down on bogus weddings, but was sacked.

The former policeman alleges he was forced out because he insisted on investigating crimes his department did not want recorded in the statistics.

His damning testimony is set to be heard at an employment tribunal which he is bringing against the agency, claiming unfair dismissal.

Yesterday Mr Sprague told the Daily Mail: 'I amassed evidence of bogus weddings but my managers just did not want to know.

'They were really keen for me not to investigate. They kept saying, "It's not that bad". I said: "Yes it is!".'

Suspected sham marriages have increased by more than 50 per cent since the Law Lords ruled against tough Home Office marriage regulations on 'human rights' grounds.

Last week a vicar was convicted of carrying out the country's biggest ever bogus wedding racket in St Leonards, East Sussex.

The Reverend Alex Brown conducted 360 fake weddings to help illegal immigrants stay in Britain. Mr Sprague uncovered a similar scam in East London.

But despite gathering compelling evidence of those involved in fake weddings, he said he struggled to get his bosses interested.

'To do something about it required effort, resources and of course it became another unwelcome statistic,' he claimed.

'So it was easier for them just to say it doesn't exist. They kept insisting it wasn't our "remit" to arrest them, but we do have the power of arrest and we had irrefutable documentary evidence.'


The Home Office, under new immigration minister Damian Green, now insists it is clamping down on sham marriages.

But Mr Sprague, 56, of south Croydon, Surrey, who was sacked last year, said hundreds of fake weddings were needlessly allowed to go ahead.

A former Metropolitan Police detective of 25 years, he joined what is now the UK Border Agency in 2001, and was responsible for investigating fraud.

While his role was not specifically to investigate suspected marriage scams, he says colleagues in the next door Public Inquiry Office – the Home Office department giving foreign nationals permission to marry British citizens – were coming to him for help over 'cases that looked dodgy', said Mr Sprague.

He said the scam involved West Africans, predominantly from Ghana, paying more than £10,000 to 'marry' a British citizen.

The Briton – often a prostitute or a drug user – would receive up to £7,000 to take part. All they would have to do is hand over their passport and a photograph.

Forgers would then insert fake stamps in the passport to make it seem as though the Briton had flown to Ghana to get married.
Sham marriage in progress: Last week Reverend Alex Brown pictured was found guilty of conducting 360 sham marriages between July 2005 and July 2009

Sham marriage in progress: Last week Reverend Alex Brown pictured was found guilty of conducting 360 sham marriages between July 2005 and July 2009
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A false wedding certificate from Ghana would also be produced, and the Ghanaian illegal immigrant would then send it all off to the Home Office to apply for a 'spouse' visa to remain in the UK.

But Mr Sprague said there were often tell-tale signs of fraud in the applications such as an official-looking entry stamp in one passport misspelt 'Hearthrow'.

As a result of investigating a sample number of marriages that took place over six months, Mr Sprague believes as many as 210 out of 300 were bogus.

After three years of masterminding the scam, a Ghanaian man was eventually arrested, and pleaded guilty in court. Mr Sprague said: 'Across the country, assuming this scam was not unique, I would estimate that hundreds of marriages a year are completely fake.'

After a series of disagreements with his bosses, he was suspended for gross misconduct in March 2008, and then sacked in May 2009.

He believes he was fired for trying to investigate too much.

But it is believed the Home Office will deny this, and cite a number of occasions when Mr Sprague allegedly made poor decisions, broke criminal evidence rules and worked when he was overtired.

His response is that he suffers from diabetes and the condition sleep apnoea, which together explain his behaviour.

Gareth Redmond, UKBA director for South East of England said: 'Owing to the ongoing legal proceedings we are unable to comment on the details of this case, other than to say that the UK Border Agency will be vigorously defending our approach in this case.'