A Pakistani student, granted a visa to study at a bogus London college, will be allowed to fight for residency in the UK despite being jailed for supplying forged bank statements in a bid to falsely obtain investor status.
When 23 year-old Umar Siddique's renewed student visa was close to expiring he presented the false statements to the Home Office, purporting he was investing £205,000 in the country, hoping it would lead to permanent residency as a Tier One Entrepreneur.
Croydon Crown Court (pictured) heard the offence would not automatically trigger a deportation order and Siddique, of Roman Road, Bow will continue in his application for residency when released in a few days.
He pleaded guilty to seeking to obtain leave to remain in the UK by deceptive means on or before November 21, last year by supplying false documents to the Home Office suggesting he had funds in excess of £200,000 - the minimum amount required to receive the visa.
Siddique arrived in the UK in October, 2009 on a student visa to study at the Sirm College, which was later black-listed and removed from the register of approved educational institutions.
He won a visa extension to study IT at Cromwell College and should have returned home upon completion of his studies last year.
However, Siddique made the false application and prosecutor Miss Shekinah Anson said: "The documents supplied included bank statements in his name that showed investors had transferred two hundred and five thousand pounds into it.
"The account was genuine, but the balance was not."
Siddique, who has been in custody since June 8, claims "a moment of desperation" led to the offence when faced with having to leave the country he wished to call home and live and work in.
A sentence of a year or more would have automatically triggered deportation, but Judge Shani Barnes agreed to limit it to nine months, announcing: "It would be wrong of me to cut off an avenue he could pursue."
Current guideline suggest twelve to eighteen months imprisonment for the offence, but Siddique is entitled to a discount for a guilty plea, even thought he entered it on the day of the trial.
"You came to this country legitimately, you studied hard and started again and successfully completed your education here," Judge Barnes told the defendant.
"You have attempted to stay here under false pretences and you are lucky it failed because your life here would have been built on a lie. You can now make your application and take your chances in the legitimate way."
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