The British state makes criminals out of people demanding the right to work. Baktial Omar from the Meadows has been sent to prison for 8 months because he needed money so much that he was forced to forge his documents so that he could get a job. Read article on Indymedia: http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/04/395649.html and ‘Read more’ for Nottingham Evening Post coverage.
Nottingham Evening Post
MEADOWS ASYLUM SEEKER IN COURT
MARCUS BOOCOCK
09:00 – 03 April 2008
A Failed asylum seeker who took on two jobs after
forging a registration card has been jailed for eight
months.
Baktial Omar could also face being sent back to his
native Iraq when he is released.
The 31-year-old’s asylum registration card carried the
words “work prohibited” on it but he got a friend to
change it to “work permitted”, Nottingham Magistrates’
Court heard.
He showed the false card to two job agencies, one of
which found him work with Staffline Recruitment
between May 2006 and September 2007.
He then secured a second job with Meridian Business
Support, though he left after a month.
Omar was eventually caught after police visited his
house and he pleaded guilty to obtaining pecuniary
advantage by deception and using a false instrument to
gain work.
Magistrates gave him consecutive four-month jail
sentences for each offence and recommended the Home
Office deport him.
Chair of the bench Alyson Turner said: “These were
serious offences. They were deliberate and
premeditated.
“If you are not deported after your sentence and your
situation has not been resolved then you are likely to
commit similar offences because of your personal
circumstances.”
Elaine Oldham, prosecuting, said Omar wanted to work
to get more money.
While getting his original card forged, he told the
Home Office it had been stolen and they sent out a
replacement, still barring him from work, in case he
faced immigration checks.
The court heard that Omar, of Meadow Lane, The
Meadows, arrived in the UK after fleeing Iraq in 2000.
He was given the registration card while he applied
for asylum. But his application was turned down and a
later appeal was rejected.
In mitigation, Neil O’Sullivan said Omar wanted work
to provide for his mother and two sisters, who were
both still in Iraq. He said his father was murdered
there in April 2006.
“This is not a case where we are talking of forged
passports or false travel documents,” he said.