Solicitor filmed offering false name plan as Home Secretary orders fines review

An undercover investigation has secretly filmed a high street solicitor explaining how a £45,000 fine for employing illegal workers could be made to go away. The solicitor, Mohammed Ilyas Yousaf, set out a plan to place the penalty in the name of someone in Iraq or Iran, beyond the reach of UK authorities, and to charge 10 per cent of the fine, or £4,500. He denies any wrongdoing. The Home Secretary has ordered a review of how illegal working fines are issued and collected after being shown the findings.

The investigation traced adverts in Kurdish on social media and spoke to barbers and mini-mart owners who had been caught employing illegal workers. Several said they had been helped by the same solicitor. An undercover reporter, posing as a mini-mart owner caught with one illegal worker, recorded Yousaf explaining that the fine could be put in another person's name. He suggested using someone who had returned to Iraq or Iran and said: 'We don't want to put your name forward, you understand? Because if we put your name forward, then the fine is going to come on your name.'

A senior immigration lawyer, Bryony Rest, said she was shocked. She said the solicitor was not only suggesting a false name but a false name of someone outside the UK, meaning the penalty could never be enforced. She called it appalling that a solicitor would suggest such a thing. A law enforcement whistleblower, who did not want to be identified, said immigration enforcement lacked the manpower to find the real owners. Businesses were moving from shop to shop, barbershop to car wash, using different dates of birth and addresses. The whistleblower questioned whether it was worth issuing the fines at all.

The figures behind the investigation show the scale of unpaid penalties. Over five years, the Home Office issued more than 5,700 fines worth around £215m, but just over £60m was collected. The Home Office said fines can be reduced on appeal and that not all are collected in the same time period. The outstanding total is therefore more than £150m on those figures.

Reporters from the investigation later returned to Liberty Solicitors to transfer the name on the fine, as Yousaf had described. A second undercover reporter pretended to be in Iraq. Yousaf took a £250 deposit and said the man on the phone needed to say he was the owner of the shop. When the reporters made clear the man was not the real owner, he became concerned. He said: 'I can't advance an untruthful or dishonest version of events.' The recording notes that his body language changed and he appeared to look directly into the camera. A legal expert said suggesting an untruthful version of events would be perverting the course of justice, misleading the courts and the Home Office, and undermining the legal system.

Yousaf later sent messages appearing to withdraw his offer of help and said he had returned the £250 deposit. In a statement, he said he had never advised anyone to put a penalty in the name of someone who was not responsible for a business, or to give false information to the Home Office, and that he never would. He said his work was to challenge penalties lawfully. He added that when a man proposed putting his business into someone else's name, he told him in writing that he could not advance an untruthful or dishonest case and did not act for him. He also denied commissioning, paying for, approving or circulating the social media videos. The Home Secretary's review will examine how illegal working fines are issued and collected.