Travel agents from Bangalore under lens after UK uncovers fraud

The agents are accused of producing fake documents and supplying counterfeit immigration stamps to support their customer's visa applications

Three travel agents from Bangalore are now under investigation after the UK Government uncovered wide scale fraud. The agents are investigated by Central Crime Branch. The agents were producing fake documents and supplying counterfeit immigration stamps to support their customer's visa applications to countries including the UK, according to the High Commission.

The scam was uncovered after eight applicants applied for UK visas using passports containing fake immigration stamps. The agents advised the applicants to get the stamps to show that they were all well travelled and to hide the fact that they had all broken the rules of their previous UK visas.

The fake stamps in the passports were immediately found and further investigations, including sharing the information with other Diplomatic missions, was carried out by the Immigration Enforcement team based at the Deputy High Commission, Chennai.

The High Commission not only refused the visas, it also retained the passports and conducted further checks. Once enough evidence was compiled the information was passed onto the Regional Passport Office, Bangalore, to investigate further.

The Passport Office advised of further fraud in these cases, as all eight applicants had recently applied for new passports, falsely claiming the ones retained by the Immigration Enforcement team had been lost. The Regional Passport Office revoked the individual's passports and passed all details and relevant documents to the Central Crime Branch who are now investigating the case.

Samuel Darling, Regional Manager for the UK's Immigration Enforcement Risk & Liaison Overseas Network said that "the UK government takes visa fraud very seriously and those who are found guilty of it are not only refused a visa, their passport could be revoked, they could face 10 year travel bans from not only the UK but from countries including America and Australia and they could also face a criminal investigation.

"We are aware of a number of travel agents across India who encourage applicants to submit fraudulent documents or passports that have been tampered with as part of their visa application and it's important that people know the consequences of being caught, before they agree.

"All visa applications are assessed on their own merits and applications must meet the immigration rules. The UK would urge applicants who don't meet our immigration rules not to apply for their visa in the first place as it is simply not worth the risk."