Failed asylum-seeker used fake papers to work in school
A FAILED asylum-seeker used fake documents to get jobs in schools looking after vulnerable students.
James Ekpa, 36, obtained work as a teaching assistant in schools for three years, bypassing strict child protection safeguards.
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Liberian Ekpa, who fled to Bridlington to escape the authorities after his claim for asylum failed, had passed two enhanced Criminal Record Bureau (CRB) checks using fake documents.
He was only caught when he was stopped for shoplifting and, despite using his false identity at the police station, checks with the Border Agency immediately flagged up that they were fake.
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Jailing him for 12 months, Judge David Tremberg said: "Jobs are hard to come by in this country.
"People with legitimate rights to look for work were deprived of that opportunity by you by taking such employment."
Hull Crown Court heard Ekpa had entered the UK from Liberia in 2005 and after his asylum bid failed he went on the run, eventually moving Bridlington.
He obtained a false passport and a fake national insurance card in the name of Kevin Ntini, claiming to be a South African national.
He worked at a special needs school in Lincoln before moving to a position as a teaching assistant on a £15,500-a-year salary at the Barton School, which caters for children aged eight to 18 who suffer with autism.
It was only when he was caught shoplifting at TK Maxx in Hull on August 15 of this year that his true identity was revealed.
The father-of-two had been caught stealing two pairs of women's shoes, which were worth £59.98, after a security guard spotted him cutting off security tags with a pair of wire cutters.
Ekpa was jailed after he pleaded guilty to possessing a false identity document and theft.
His barrister John Thackray said: "He has worked hard, he has not committed any offences and has supported his partner and his children.
"All of that, of course, is against a background of him absconding in circumstances when he should have returned to his own country."
Judge David Tremberg told Ekpa the courts needed to deal robustly with identity crimes.
He said: "Such offences strike at the heart of our immigration and asylum system.
"You deliberately went to ground and acquired for yourself a false and new identify.
"That course of criminal conduct was designed and intended to keep you out of the way of the authorities and allowed you to work and live here."
Comments
by Notevenreal
Tuesday, September 18 2012, 4:09PM
“Oh my days, Thackray is a joke!!!”
by amoncrieff
Tuesday, September 18 2012, 1:55PM
“Deal "robustly" with such crimes? 12 months! 12 months! then he's back on the streets of a country that absolutely DOESN'T want him and he legally should NOT be in! ******* hell.”
by quietvoice
Monday, September 17 2012, 9:49PM
“Deport him asap. Failed asylum seeker, thief, using faked documents! Why the hell is he still here. Get him on a plane paid for from the money he earnt.”
by swallo
Monday, September 17 2012, 6:42PM
“Proably be infinging his kids human rights
if he is deported”
by bigmamma107
Monday, September 17 2012, 6:30PM
“then what happens to him not sent back i bet”
by ooopratt
Monday, September 17 2012, 4:40PM
“Fled to Bridlington!!!”
by geertwilders2
Monday, September 17 2012, 3:22PM
“That's one caught,
Now for the other 2 million!!!”
by Mickey_Luv2
Monday, September 17 2012, 2:56PM
“I just wish I was surprised by this.”
by localad
Monday, September 17 2012, 1:38PM
“So being an failed asylum seeker who falsely takes employment by using identity theft, and then shop lifting, and his lawyer says he has comitted no offences.
I think John Thackray should be prosecuted for impersonating a solicitor, the buffoon.
Did not see any mention that this guy will be deported after he is released though.
He should be for sure, no questions or arguments.”
by notrequired
Monday, September 17 2012, 11:10AM
“what will happen to him when he is released in just few week stime. That is the question =will he be deported or allowed to carry on in this country I wonder.”