Pizzas galore!

Another lawyer, Dr Ruby Bhattacharya of ARMB Solicitors in Whitechapel, east London, agreed to help the undercover reporter enter a civil partnership to get his Bangladeshi cousin a passport and also to handle the subsequent divorce so he could marry a woman.

“In future . . . there are ways out as well,” she said. “After two, three years, after he [the cousin] has become permanent, then you can think about other things [marrying a woman], which I’m not supposed to tell you . . . After two years then he will be given indefinite leave.”

The reporter in the secretly taped meeting asked: “So you’d be willing to help me through the process of bringing him over, divorcing him and marrying someone else?” Bhattacharya replied: “No problem . . . but there will be separate fees.”

Confronted afterwards she said she had done nothing improper. “No solicitor would help any person who would say that I am bringing somebody with whom I do not have any relationship. You said he is your cousin, so having a relationship with your cousin is not a problem,” she said.

A further five firms were visited by an undercover female reporter who claimed that she wished to “marry” her lesbian Ukrainian girlfriend.

In the meetings she admitted she had a boyfriend and that her “lesbian” lover was simply a friend who wanted a British passport. Three solicitors said there was no requirement to prove a sexual relationship.

A fourth solicitor, Irene Anin of Welbeck Anin Solicitors in Camberwell, south London, said, “It shouldn’t be a problem, you just say you’re girlfriends. As for what goes on behind closed doors, [that] has got nothing to do with anybody.”

The reporter was told she would need to provide letters, photographs and other evidence of a “relationship”. Anin added: “They [the Home Office] will be happy with that. I think they’re fairly lenient now.”

Yesterday Anin defended her comments: “I just told her what the rules were, I just told her what to do. “I felt uncomfortable when she mentioned her boyfriend. I did not encourage her to do anything untoward.”

A solicitor at Callistes Solicitors in Brixton said he would be unable to help the undercover female reporter. “You’re not telling the truth. If she’s not your girlfriend she has no right to be here as your girlfriend,” he said.

The Home Office said: “You have to demonstrate a valid and genuine relationship to qualify for citizenship. If we suspected that the relationship was not genuine we would make further inquiries.”

Additional reporting: Laura St Quinton

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