An illegal immigrant who fathered five children after arriving in the UK on a fake British passport has been sent to jail.

Mohammed Zulfiqar, 55, of Amberley Street, Bradford Moor, Bradford, was caught after he applied for a licence to get work as a doorman in the security industry and used the passport to support his application.

Further inquiries revealed the person named in the passport had reported his stolen, while a national insurance number quoted by Zulfiqar belonged to a dead man.

Martin Robertshaw, prosecuting, said Zulfiqar’s home in Bradford was searched on August 28 last year and a Pakistani passport was found with counterfeit entries on it including one that said there was no limit to the period he could stay in Britain.

In fact Zulfiqar accepted entering the country illegally in 2002 having paid an agent in Pakistan around £15,000.

Lisa Julian representing him said Zulfiqar now had five children under the age of six and a wife with health difficulties and was trying to fight deportation proceedings.

Zulfiqar was found guilty by a jury at Bradford Crown Court of using the fake British passport to gain employment and possessing the Pakistan passport with counterfeit endorsements.

Jailing him at Leeds Crown Court yesterday for a total of 21 months, Recorder Keith Miller said the fake British passport was a sophisticated forgery and it was only an expert who was examining it in minute detail who would spot some spelling mistakes in the small print.

But it had been spotted and when immigration officials went to his home they found the other passport with counterfeit stamps on it, including one purporting to be a visit to Islamabad.

“I believe you know very much more than you are prepared to divulge about the circumstances in which you acquired the British passport and the stamps on the Pakistani passport. What is clear is that you are in this country illegally.

“There is no record of your having entered the UK and during your evidence you stated you paid £15,000 to an agent in order to come here,” said Recorder Miller.

He said in the worst cases such false documents could be used to engage in acts of terrorism, although that was not the case here.

“In this and similar cases to yours the misuse of false passports undermines the legitimate purpose of the authorities in seeking to regulate immigration and the influx of people who wish to use our health, education and housing services.”

Recorder Miller told Zulfiqar it would be up to the Home Office what happened over his deportation but it was open to his family to go to Pakistan themselves.