Man jailed over fake passport

A 29-year-old Sudanese man who got hold of a fake French passport so that he could work in Shropshire has been jailed for eight months.

Jean Bello, from Sutton Hill, Telford, had previously admitted obtaining the passport and working illegally and appeared at Shrewsbury Crown Court yesterday to be sentenced.

He had been working for Bridgnorth engineering firm Grainger and Worrall for two-and-a-half years.

However, Bello's bosses had recently told him that he needed a National Insurance number.

In order to get one he went to Telford Job Centre Plus on December 19 and presented the passport, which was under a false name, along with other documents.

Officials suspected the passport was a forgery and sent it away to be examined, where it was found to have a false watermark and a problem with its stitching.

Mr Mark Linkins, prosecuting, said Bello had also given a false date of birth and claimed he was from Sierra Leone.

The defendant later admitted entering the UK in 2001 after fleeing his home in the Darfur region of Sudan.

Mrs Joanne Griffiths, for Bello, told the court his parents had been killed when he was eight and he had no family remaining in the country.

She said: "He came here and secured employment, and remained employed there doing the night shift for two-and-a-half years before this became an issue."

Mrs Griffiths said Bello's father was a soldier and Bello believed that also put him at risk if he was returned to his country.

"It is to his credit that he must have been doing the work to a standard his employer was obviously happy with," she said.

But Judge Nicolas Mitchell told him that he would still be deported at the end of his sentence.

He said: "Sad as your background may be, these offences are obviously serious."

Bello had admitted possession of false documentation and obtaining a pecuniary advantage by deception at Telford Magistrates' Court on January 18.

By Dave West