27 January 2021
Free Movement, 26 January 2021.
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"Stealing someone’s identity is not a “false representation” for the purposes of a 20-year long residence application, the Upper Tribunal has found. The case is Mahmood (paras. S-LTR.1.6. & S-LTR.4.2.; Scope) Bangladesh [2020] UKUT 376 (IAC).
Bangladeshi national Sultan Mahmood, 41, has been living in the UK since at least 1996, but not as Sultan Mahmood. To his employer, his doctor and the taxman he was British citizen Rezaul Karim, 44, having adopted that man’s identity (and National Insurance number) and lived in that guise for over a decade.
In 2009, Mr Mahmood applied for indefinite leave to remain. He did so in his own name, but “openly admitted” his fake identity: the evidence in support of his application included “eleven P60 forms dated from 1998 to 2009” in the name of Rezaul Karim. His double life, Mr Mahmood argued, was not inherently a breach of the immigration laws.
(...)
The problem faced by the Home Office here was that, while Mr Mahmood had undoubtedly made false representations, he hadn’t made them to the Home Office. For the purposes of his immigration case, Mr Mahmood had been nothing but honest: he had sent in the P60s and explained all about his false identity.
(...)
The First-tier Tribunal had fallen into error by focusing on the false representations without considering whether they had been made “in a previous [immigration] application”. And with no suitability bar left standing, Mr Mahmood won: the Upper Tribunal remade the decision and granted him permission to remain in the UK under the 20-year rule."
Source: Man who lived in UK under assumed identity for over a decade wins right to stay (Free Movement, link)
Judgment: Mahmood (paras. S-LTR.1.6. & S-LTR.4.2.; Scope) Bangladesh [2020] UKUT 376 (IAC) (pdf)
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