A MAN who used a Bradford-based immigration racket to trick the Home Office into letting him stay in the UK has been spared an immediate jail sentence because he now has two young children.

Pakistani national, Atiq Rehman and his brother-in-law, Shamash Khan, were customers of a sophisticated scam run by disgraced councillor, Khadam Hussain, and members of his family, Bradford Crown Court heard.

Yesterday, Rehman, 30, was convicted by a jury of obtaining leave to remain in the UK by deception and sentenced to six months imprisonment, suspended for 18 months.

Khan, also 30, pleaded guilty to conspiring with Khadam Hussain and others to defraud entry clearance officers with false documents to obtain a visa to bring his wife from Pakistan.

Prosecutor Nadim Bashir said Hussain, who is serving a nine year prison sentence for conspiracy to defraud, and members of his family in Bradford, produced and sold false document packages to defraud the Home Office.

Hussain, of Box Tree Close, Girlington, helped Rehman to obtain a visa for indefinite leave to remain in the country after he arrived in 2009 on a spouse’s visa.

He had married a British woman but his visa was valid only for 27 months.

Sentencing Rehman, Recorder Toby Wynn, said it was an extremely serious offence.

“We have to have confidence in our society that documents placed before our officials are legitimate and genuine,” he said.

But five years had passed and Rehman, of New Mill Street, Walsall, West Midlands, now had two young children, aged six and three.

“You were not part of this dishonesty except in the case of documents relating to yourself. All you did was take advantage of an existing enterprise,” Recorder Wynn said.

He ordered Rehman to pay £250 costs because he ran a “completely and demonstrably bogus defence,” wasting the jurors’ time and the court’s money.

Khan, of Wycliffe Grove, Walsall, will be sentenced later.

Khadam Hussain was imprisoned at Bradford Crown Court in November, 2014, along with other family members. The scam charged up to £3,000 for more than 100 false applications to the Home Office.