Nhs employ illegal immigrant for four years

A care worker who looked after elderly and mentally ill people earned more than £37,000 while working illegally for four years in this country.

Zimbabwean Kidi Gotsi,33, worked for two health care companies and was even paid by the NHS as one of a bank of workers they called on if they were short of staff.

It was only in August last year, after he had been working for the NHS for ten months, that his deception was discovered when thorough checks were carried out.

Jason Wolfe, prosecuting at Luton Crown Court on Friday, said Gotsi obtained work using a false passport and false identity in the name of Brian Musbawe. He had paid £50 for the passport and £250 for the stamps inside it.

In all he earned £37,626.19 from jobs with the NHS staff bank bureau and the two health care companies. He had paid tax and national insurance contributions.

Mr Gotsi arrived at Gatwick Airport in February 2000 and was refused entry to the UK.

He was granted temporary leave to stay but was told to report back to Gatwick on November 23, 2001 to be removed from the country.

He failed to turn up and became an illegal entrant, said the prosecutor. In January last year he made a fresh application to stay to the Home Office. A year on he is still awaiting a decision, the court heard.

Gotsi, of Northdale Close, Kempston, appeared for sentence having admitted to obtaining a pecuniary advantage by deception and possessing false identity documents.

Defence barrister Alisdair Smith said Gotsi had fled Zimbabwe following the death of his father and brother.

He said he was carrying out the sort of low paid caring work other workers would not do. He said: "He was looking after elderly or mentally ill people - work which many of us would not do. He was filling the gaps others would not fill." Mr Smith said Gotsi did the job well and the country was getting the work done on the cheap and taking tax and national insurance from him.

He said Gotsi was working to provide for his wife, who is a student in the UK and their six year old son.

Judge John Bevan QC told Gotsi: "You were working under the noses of the authorities - even paying taxes for four years without anybody noticing." But he acknowledged Gotsi was doing a job for the community that a lot of people would not be prepared to do.

The judge jailed him for 12 months and recommended him for deportation.