JAILED: Malawian care worker forged French passport to work in Cannock

Malawian national Elson Kalima pleaded guilty at Warwick Crown Court to two charges of possessing a false identity document with improper intent.

Kalima, aged 49, of Cecil Road, Erdington, Birmingham, also admitted two charges of fraud and was jailed for eight months – and may be deported after serving his sentence.

Prosecutor James Dunstan said that Kalima came to this country on a student visa in 2008 and was later granted an extension until September 2011.

He then made a number of applications to remain, based on treatment he was receiving in this country for diabetes, which were all refused.

But Kalima still failed to leave the UK, and in November last year he applied for a job with First Call Health Care as a care assistant for the elderly.

He showed a French passport to prove he was entitled to get employment in the UK and, supported by that, he was able to pass a CRB check. As a result, he was taken on to work at a home for vulnerable adults in Heath Hayes, near Cannock.

Working full-time, Kalima had earned a total of £10,124 by the time the Immigration Authority became aware he was working at the home and told his employers, who terminated his employment.

But he then went to a health care recruitment agency through which he went on to work at various residential homes in Birmingham, earning a further £766 wages in total.

Then in July, through another agency, he began working at Newstead Lodge Care Home in Southam, near Coventry where he was still working when he was arrested by immigration officers in early September.

He admitted his unlawful status in this country, and said he had been approached by someone who offered him the false passport for £700 – and he bought it so he could earn money to send home to his family in Malawi.

Martin Groves, defending, explained: "He was a teacher in Malawi, earning £20 a month, but had to give it up because of his diabetes and suffering from fits.

"He came here as a student, and his status would allow him to work for up to 20 hours a week, which he did and was able to send money back for his wife and three children and his sister-in-law and her children."

Mr Groves, who said it was 'an offence committed out of desperation,' added that there had been no complaint about Kalima's work at the various homes.

Jailing Kalima, Recorder Gareth Evans QC told him: "I sympathise with the reason you became an over-stayer and why you continued to work, and I'm sure you gave good service for the money you were paid."