A Kosovan migrant pretended to be the father of 13 Albanian babies to get them illegal British passports.
Petrit Musa, 38, created the fraudulent passport applications on behalf of a criminal gang to secure British citizenship for the children in exchange for ‘significant sums’ of cash, a court heard.
Musa, who was granted indefinite leave to remain in the UK in 2021, had six passports successfully issued for the children before his scam was spotted by the Home Office.
All his applications have now been revoked.
Musa was jailed for five years this morning at Isleworth Crown Court after admitting assisting unlawful immigration into Britain.
The construction worker was recruited by the gang after falling deep into debt due to issues with cocaine, alcohol and gambling, the court heard.
Because he had indefinite leave to remain, his children would be eligible for British citizenship.
Musa used this status to try and secure British passports for the 13 Albanian babies – none of whom he was related to.
The babies were the children of Albanian mothers who had travelled to the UK illegally, and had paid large sums of cash to the gang for the service.
Musa was able to pay off a debt of more than £40,000 through the proceeds but continued to profit from the fraud after this was settled, prosecutors said.
Oliver Pateman, prosecuting, said there were selfies recovered from Musa’s phone showing him carrying large quantities of cash, and he had made several large cash deposits at a bank near the Westfield Shopping Centre.
‘We would suggest that these were the payments Mr Musa derived from the scheme,’ he said.
Musa made the fake applications between June 2022 and October 2024, after which the Home Office spotted that he had claimed to be the father of several babies with suspiciously close birth dates.
‘This is a relatively sophisticated scheme and there’s a clear pattern which is followed in each of the 13 cases,’ Mr Pateman said.
‘His role, although limited to applying for the passports, is essential to the scheme succeeding overall.’
Patrick Maggs, defending Musa, who is from Shepherds Bush in west London, said his client was not making the lion’s share of profits from the scam – which would have gone to those higher up the gang.
‘His role was to be the one who put his face and name to the franchise, which was always destined to fail,’ he said.
‘So he was always the one the authorities were going to come for, not those making the lion’s share of the proceeds. He was the stooge.’
Judge Recorder James Thomas said he accepted Musa was not the mastermind of the organisation but he did make significant sums of money from the scam.
He gave Musa credit for his guilty pleas but told him: ‘Your offending spanned two years. None of the babies were related to you. You were paid significant amounts of money for each application.’
