A 23-YEAR-old illegal immigrant living in Dudley, who used false documentation to get a job at a Brockmoor foundry, has been spared prison.
Wolverhampton Crown Court heard how Iraqi-born Salhi Mohammed, of Summer Road, entered the United Kingdom in 2002 and was told he could not register for employment when he immediately applied for asylum. But he used a false passport and a national insurance number to get onto the books of a recruitment agency before getting work at the foundry.
Mohammed then returned to the agency in 2007 and informed them and the foundry that he had changed his name and produced new documentation.But he was arrested after clocking up £25,000 in wages from the foundry when it was discovered he had entered the country illegally.
Miss Balvinder Bhatti prosecuting said Mohammed's application for asylum had been rejected and an appeal against the decision had also been dismissed. He has since made a new application after marrying an English woman and having a child together, but a decision was pending and no deportation proceedings were in place. Mohammed admitted two charges of using the false documentation and was given a nine month jail term suspended for 18 months.
He was further ordered to carry out 80 hours community punishment and to be under supervision for a year. Mr David Swinnerton defending said Mohammed, who had spent 99 days in custody while on remand, had been desperate to stay in work so could support his wife and child, as he found claiming benefits to be "shameful."
