A man who came to the UK on a six-month visitors’ visa was caught seven years later illegally working at a Bradford store.

Indian national Hakim Obri, 54, used a fake Portugese passport to get a job at Bombay Stores in Shearbridge Road in February 2006. He was caught after he used it to try to obtain a driving licence.

Staff at the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Centre were suspicious and alerted the UK Border Agency, whose investigations resulted in Obri being jailed for six months. He is currently in prison and will be deported after serving his sentence.

Established in 2008, the UK Border Agency is responsible for keeping the UK border secure and controlling migration into the country.

Across the region in the past three years, 750 people have been convicted of immigration crime offences including identity card theft, using deception to attempt to remain in the UK, sham marriages and human trafficking.

One of the main areas in which the agency operates is illegal working. “We regularly undertake operations in which we visit local employers about which we have received intelligence that they are employing people illegally,” says Jeremy Oppenheim, regional director for the agency in the North East, Yorkshire and Humber.

Figures are not available for Bradford alone, but last year across Yorkshire and Humberside, around 1,350 immigration offenders were removed following such an operation.

One centred on the Shimla Kebab House in Great Horton Road, Bradford, where seven migrants from India and Pakistan with no right to work in the UK were arrested following a raid in September last year.

The enforcement operation was part of a nationwide campaign to tackle illegal working, sham marriages, bogus colleges and organised immigration crime. Two of those arrested have since been deported, two are in detention pending removal, and the other three are on bail and required to report regularly to the agency.

It acts on information received from a variety of sources. Jeremy says: “We receive tip-offs from members of the public, from employees working in organisations where illegal working is taking place, and also from illegal workers themselves, particularly those who feel they are being exploited. We also pick up intelligence from local authorities and the trading standards service. They all make a real contribution.”

Among the big successes for Yorkshire and Humber UKBA officers was the busting of a ‘sham marriages’ scam centred on churches within the Bradford district. It featured a group of Nigerian men and women involved in bogus weddings with Slovakians in Scholes and Cleckheaton in 2009.

The number of crimes being carried out across the region is not increasing. “It is steady, and the more enforcement we do and the more we convey the message about prosecutions and the consequences of illegal activity, the more we can bear down upon it,” says Jeremy.

Illegal immigrants come from all corners of the globe, from China to India and Pakistan, to South Africa, USA and Canada.

Trafficking gangs, are, says Jeremy, “a problem across the country.” But, he adds: “Awareness of this crime is increasing and the methods we can use to track them has improved.”

The agency is also responsible for tackling drug-trafficking. “We have had significant success in the region,” says Jeremy, referring to a gang that was sentenced to a total of 25 years for attempting to smuggle £40,000-worth of cocaine into Leeds-Bradford Airport.

The gang-of-four – three Somali men and a Portugese woman, were jailed in August last year for a plot to bring 380g of the drug from Equador.

Over the past year in the northern region, 57.82kg of heroin and 35kg of cocaine has been seized, along with £884,000 cash. Illegally-imported cigarettes have also been seized.

The agency relies heavily on a range of methods to apprehend offenders, including surveillance.

Operations to target migrants often lead to the detection of other crimes.

Says Jeremy: “In many places we can pick up not just migrants who have overstayed their visas, but discover other practices where the employer is lax, such as health and safety.”

He adds: “We will continue to crack down on those who don’t play by the rules, and the people and organisations behind them.”

* Anyone who suspects that people may be involved in drug smuggling or other illegal activity should contact Crimestoppers on 0800 555111. Callers are assured anonymity.