People smuggler from Leeds sentenced to six years in jail

Posing as a British national she had presented a genuine British passport that did not belong to her to officers.

Omar, a Dutch national, who has an address at Iveson Approach in Leeds, who was travelling on the same flight as Ibrahim, was also arrested.

An investigation found Omar had not only organised and paid for 22-year-old Ibrahim’s travel but was also linked to three earlier attempts by Somali nationals to enter the UK illegally.

Two were at Stansted Airport and one at Dunkirk in France. None were successful.

Ibrahim’s husband, Abdulrazak Amin Hassan, 35, a British citizen with an address in Walthamstow, London, was arrested on August 19 2015.

Evidence obtained from Omar’s phone connected Hassan to the conspiracy.

Hassan was subsequently charged with conspiracy to facilitate a breach of the UK’s immigration laws by a non-EU person in relation to the incident at Leeds Bradford airport.

Omar was charged with the same offence in relation to the Leeds Bradford incident, as well as the incidents at Stansted and Dunkirk.

He admitted the immigration offences and was sentenced today at York Crown Court to five years and four months’ imprisonment. He was also sentenced separately to eight months’ imprisonment for credit card offences in North Yorkshire.

Hassan, who also pleaded guilty, was sentenced in March at Leeds Crown Court to 18 months imprisonment.

Ibrahim was sentenced to 12 months in prison in November 2014 after pleading guilty at Leeds Crown Court to using a false passport and breaching UK immigration law.

Craig Hobbs from the North East Yorkshire and Humber Criminal & Financial Investigation team said: “I hope this case serves as a warning to anyone tempted to get involved with this kind of crime. Working closely with Border Force colleagues we will identify the criminals behind illegal entry attempts and they will be jailed.”