Immigration Civil Servant Looked-Up His Family's Cases

An assistant immigration officer with the Asylum Screening Unit has received a suspended prison sentence for illegally accessing computer information at work on immigrants he was sponsoring to enter the UK.

Anil Sanon, 64, of Davidson Road, Croydon was employed at the town's Lunar House building, the Home Office's UK HQ for visa and immigration applications.

He pleaded guilty to twenty counts of securing unauthorised access to a program or data held on a computer and was sentenced to five months imprisonment, suspended for twelve months.

Croydon Crown Court heard Sanon looked-up details of individuals on the Central Reference System, which revealed the progress of their immigration application, decisions and enquiries that still had to be made.

The Home Office have a 'zero tolerance' policy on such unauthorised access, but this did not stop Sanon searching for details of his son-in-law's case following an arranged marriage with his daughter in June, 2011.

Sanon, who is a carer for his disabled wife, was told he was guilty of a: “gross breach of trust.”