FAKE IT TILL YOU MAKE IT?
Jane Deith
My latest File on 4 is called Breaking into Britain - listen here
Like most original journalism, a big story came from a tip off. A contact of the programme got in touch to tell us about a scam she thought was really unfair - someone she knew was paying a high street firm in Ireland to create and live a fake life for him in Ireland. Why? So that as an 'Irish resident' his wife from Pakistan could join him, and they could return to live together in England under EU law. Under British law, she wouldn't have been able to come.
Clever digging by producer Paul Grant, helped by undercover producers posing as British women with husbands abroad, netted us two high street immigration agents who laid bare the scam, and how much they would charge to arrange things.
Ireland's Garda National Immigration Bureau revealed this is a white collar crime which is incredibly hard to spot, but is making the agents millions and millions of euro.