With its humble setting, the building might seem an unlikely nerve centre for
an elaborate, multimillion-pound fraud that made a mockery of UK immigration
policy.
In the rush hour, cars crawl south from the centre of Manchester along
Stockport Road past line after cramped line of Asian retail outlets, some
less grubby than others.
Among the fast-food shops, Haj travel agents, halal butchers, curry houses and
money-exchange outlets is a former pub, reborn in 2006 as Manchester College
of Professional Studies.
Here, two young men from a town in North West Frontier Province (NWFP) in
Pakistan — in Britain on student visas — started a scam that would earn them
a small fortune.
The Times has evidence that in 15 months from October 2006 they
enrolled 1,143 foreign students, most Pakistanis, and sold bogus college
qualifications to enable another 654 to extend their stay in the UK.
With each student making average payments to the college totalling at least
£1,000 — in many cases it was far more — those running the operation are
thought to have banked almost £2 million in less than two years.
By the time the college closed last summer, to that total of 1,797 students
could be added a further 1,181 would-be international students who had been
sent letters of admission.
That was a remarkable achievement for a college with only three teachers,
which during its existence gave lessons from three small classrooms to — at
the most generous estimate — no more than 130 genuine students. Others may
have wanted to study, but found when they arrived that the course on which
they were enrolled did not exist — because the college was validated to
teach only eight of the 55 diplomas and degrees that it advertised.
Most students, however, had no intention of entering a classroom. They were in
the UK to earn as much as possible for as long as possible.
The college’s huge intake soon gained such notoriety within Manchester’s
Pakistani community that it became known as Pathan College, a reference to
the language of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region.
If the Home Office is to believed, it was also not long before word of the
magic carpet to Britain reached the exporters of worldwide Islamic jihad.
The Times has established that eight of the ten Pakistani students —
most from NWFP — arrested in Manchester and Liverpool last month over their
alleged links to an al-Qaeda network were, on paper, students at Manchester
College of Professional Studies.
Aged from 22 to 38, they were enrolled over an 11-month period from November
2006. College records suggest they were studying — with impeccable
attendance — for diplomas and degrees. For the vast majority of students,
the documents were a charade. The college was a front that provided cover
for students to do whatever they wanted in Britain.
Most came from Pakistan, but hundreds were also admitted from Nigeria and
other countries in Africa, South Asia and the Far East.
They may have been running a scam, but Fayaz Ali Khan, 30, his business
partner, Asfandyar Bashir, 29, and their small team ran their sham college
with admirable efficiency.
The Times has been given evidence from a database listing every student
admitted and every diploma and certificate that was sold. It records how the
eight terror suspects and more than 1,000 others were given letters designed
to fool the Home Office, Inland Revenue, banks and local authorities into
believing they were students.
Diplomas and attendance records in the name of other colleges were also
printed and sold, often to provide a “history” to account for missing years
during a student’s time in the UK. The men invented the grandly named,
Dublin-based Greenford University.
This mythical seat of learning proceeded to accredit Manchester College of
Professional Studies with a bewildering range of undergraduate and
postgraduate honours courses that its few employees had no authority — let
alone the capacity — to teach.
Manchester College of Professional Studies was also affiliated with Blackpool
University, again based in Dublin, established “under the order of the King
of Belgium” and licensed by the Accreditation Council of Higher Education
(ACHE).
All of which might sound impressive until one learns that ACHE is based in
Wallis and Futuna, an island group in the South Pacific.
Finally, the college also posed as a study centre for the University of
Newcastle, which is really the online University of New Castle, incorporated
“in the sate (sic) of Delaware” and, like Blackpool University, accredited
by a group of South Pacific islands.
Mr Fayaz and his friends could run their scams for so long because the UK’s
system for controlling and monitoring international students was — until
last month — lamentable. He was able to open a college and gain a place on
the Government’s register of educational providers by completing an online
application. No one checked his background, no one came — at the outset — to
inspect his premises and no one sought to discover whether the teachers he
said he was employing had the qualifications claimed.
Advance notice was given of the periodic Home Office visits made after the
college opened, so there was always time to make sure associates and
employees were sitting studiously in a classroom when an inspector arrived.
Astonishingly, there was not even a system for limiting or monitoring how many
students a college enrolled.
A Home Office spokesman admitted that until April there were “no statutory
obligations” regarding student admission numbers. There was merely “a
voluntary code of conduct”.
One bad apple would have been one too many, but The Times has uncovered
a tangled web linking 11 international colleges formed during the past five
years, in Manchester, Bradford, London and Essex.
A few barely existed beyond their registered office address, others had
impressive internet sites and some even gave lessons to a minority of the
students they enrolled. Seven were partly or wholly controlled, for at least
some period during their existence, by Saif Ullah, another young Pakistani
who came to the UK on a student visa.
In adjoining buildings on a sloping street in Bradford the 32-year-old, from
Punjab, operated campuses for Fort Williams College and Liverpool College of
Management Sciences. Mr Ullah went on to become a director of London Academy
of Business & Technology and Infonexus College London, both in Ilford,
Essex. He founded Bradford College of Professional Studies and Capital
College of Professional Studies, in Manchester. His final and most lucrative
venture was Cambridge College of Learning, in the East End of London, where
— although it had some genuine students — police believe he signed 2,500
fake postgraduate diplomas, charging up to £3,000 a time.
Each diploma entitled its holder to apply for and usually gain a lucrative
two-year UK post-study work visa.
Mr Ullah fled with his millions to Pakistan, where he is in hiding, after
Cambridge College of Learning was raided by the police and UK Border Agency
officials in December. By then, he had passed on the tricks of the trade to
Mr Fayaz, one of his former agents, who registered Manchester College of
Professional Studies in January 2006. Later that year he started Oxford
College of Management Science, above a cash-and-carry shop farther along
Stockport Road.
That was another institution claiming to run degree courses for the
less-than-genuine University of Newcastle. In 2008 Mr Fayaz took control of
Bradford College of Professional Studies, now in the city’s Manningham Lane,
later expanding it with a sister campus in Manchester.
Today, two of Mr Fayaz’s young protégés run both the Bradford College
businesses. Another former employee went on to start two more colleges in
Manchester that are still open.
The Manchester College of Professional Studies database reveals that it also
printed certificates and diplomas for a further four colleges in London,
Manchester and Glasgow. One, Metro College of Management Sciences, above a
fresh halal meat and poultry store, was another that drew most of its intake
from NWFP. It specialised in students from Swat Valley, where the Pakistan
government ceded control to Taleban commanders earlier this year.
Last year a Liberal Democrat website revealed that one of its councillors in
Manchester had been “humbled and thrilled” to receive an honorary degree in
social work from the college which, it noted, was affiliated with “the
Greenford University”.
Manchester College of Professional Studies closed last summer after the Home
Office discovered some of the numerous irregularities.
A new college, under different ownership and with no connection to the
immigration scam, is operating from the same premises. Some of the other
colleges that Mr Fayaz and Mr Ullah ran are also under new ownership. Many
hundreds of former Manchester College of Professional Studies students
remain, however, in Britain.
Some have moved to other sham colleges. Others have used false documents to
win places at genuine colleges and universities.
Facilitating the commission of a breach of immigration law by a non-EU citizen
is, under the Immigration Act 1971, an offence that carries a maximum prison
sentence of 14 years.
Mr Ullah may be beyond the reach of the British authorities, yet Fayaz Ali
Khan and many of his former associates at Manchester College of Professional
Studies are still in the UK.
The Times handed its evidence yesterday to the UK Border Agency.
HOW TO FOOL THE AUTHORITIES
• For £50, a young man in the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan is sold
a letter of admission to Manchester College of Professional Studies (MCPS)
from one of many “educational consultants” acting for Fayaz Ali Khan
• The admission letter is used, together with educational qualifications and
financial records faked by Fayaz’s associates in Pakistan, to apply for
student visa entry to Britain
• If a visa is granted, student pays £250 to consultant, to be split with
Fayaz
• Student arrives in UK and enrols at MCPS, paying £500-£1,000 to be issued
with letters confirming status as full-time student. Used to gain national
insurance number, bank account and exemption from paying council tax
• Student finds full-time work, returning to college almost 12 months later
when visa is about to expire.
• Student pays from £500 (if Pakistani) up to £2,000 (if African or from the
Far East) to MCPS for certificate confirming impeccable attendance record
during past year and successful completion of course
• In some cases, MCPS sends leave-to-remain letter to Home Office supporting
student’s visa extension application, stating that he has started new course
due to run for next two/three years. Student gets extended leave to stay in
UK
• In other cases, fake diplomas and certificates are used to gain place at
genuine college or university, also leading to extended leave to remain
• Other students use bogus postgraduate diplomas, bought for up to £3,000, to
apply for two-year post-study work visa, meant to allow brightest graduates
to get work
