The secret photo reveals an arrogant tactic of visa sponsorship scammers

The recruitment agents who have deceived foreign citizens applying to work in the UK care sector are on display by BBC Secret Filming.

One of the fraudsters is a Nigerian doctor who has worked for NHS in the field of psychiatry.

The interior office has admitted that the system is open to abuse, but investigating the BBC World Service shows the obvious ease with which these agents can deceive people, avoid discovering and continue to win.

Our secret shooting reveals the tactics of agents, including:

• Illegal job sales at UK care companies
• Creating fake pay schemes to conceal that some jobs do not exist
• Switching from care to other sectors such as construction that also faces a shortage of staff

Immigration fraud reports have increased as the government’s visa scheme – originally designed to allow foreign medical professionals to work in the UK – has been expanded in 2022 to include care workers.

In order to apply for the visa, candidates must first receive a “COS Certificate” (COS) from an employer in the UK, which is licensed by the home office. This is the need for COS documents that are operated by agents to move fraudsters.

“The scale of operation under the work visa for health and care is significant,” says Dora-Olivia Vikol, CEO of the Work Center, a charity that helps migrants and disadvantaged people in the United Kingdom.

“I think it has become a national crisis.”

She says she has a “systemic risk inherent in the sponsorship system” as he “puts the employer in an incredible force” and “enabled this predatory market for intermediaries to mushrooms”.

The BBC has sent two undercover journalists to turn to the relocation agents working in the UK.

One met with Dr. Kelvin Alanem, a Nigerian doctor and founder of Careedu, based in Harlow, Essex.

The website tells him that his business is a “starting spot for global young Africans”, claiming that there are 9,800 “happy customers”.

Believing that the BBC undercover journalist was well connected in the UK care sector, Dr. Alanem tried to hire her to become an agent of his business, saying that it would be very lucrative.

“Just take me homes for care. I can make you a millionaire,” he said.

As a potential business partner, our journalist then received an unprecedented view of how immigration fraud from agents such as Dr. Alam actually work. Dr. Alanem said she would pay 2,000 British pounds ($ 2,600) for each home care vacation she was able to get, and offered a $ 500 pound commission ($ 650) on top.

He then said he would sell the vacancies to the candidates back in Nigeria.

Candidate for job applicants is illegal in the UK.

“They (candidates) don’t have to pay because it’s free. It has to be free,” he said, lowering his voice.

“They pay because they know that this is the most probable way.”

The BBC began investigating him after a series of online complaints about his relocation services.

Praise – from Southeastern Nigeria and in the mid -30s – was one of those who complained, claiming that he had paid more than 10,000 British pounds ($ 13,000) for work in the UK. He tells him that he was told he would work with a care company called care-based career-based care. It was only when he arrived that he realized that the work did not exist.

“If I knew there was no work, I wouldn’t have come here,” he says. “At least at home in Nigeria, if you break, I can find my sister or my parents and go and eat free food. It’s not the same here. You will starve.”

Praise says he has reported the effectiveness of care and we have been alane for months, asking when he can start working. Despite the promises of the assistance of Dr. Alana, the work has never been done. Almost a year later, he found a position with another care provider, ready to sponsor him to stay in the UK.

Our investigation found that the efficiency of busy care – an average of 16 people in 2022 and 152 in 2023 and still a letter sent from the internal office to the company from May 2023 – and seen by the BBC – showed that it has issued 1,234 sponsorship certificates to foreign workers between March 2022.

The effectiveness of the CARE sponsorship license was canceled in July 2023. The care company can no longer recruit from abroad, but continues to work.

He told the BBC that he strongly denied the claim that she had agreed with D -R Alana. It says he believes that he has legally recruited staff from Nigeria and other countries. He disputes the cancellation of his home office of his sponsorship license, he said, and the question is already in court.

In another secretly filmed meeting, Dr. Alanem shared even more complicated fraud, including sponsorship documents for jobs that do not exist.

He said that the “advantage” of having a COS that is not related to work “is that you can choose any city you want.”

“You can go to Glasgow. You can stay in London. You can live everywhere,” he told us.

This is not true. If a migrant arrives in the UK for a health and health visa and does not work in the role they have been appointed, their visa can be canceled and they risk being deported.

In “The Secret Shooting”, D -R alane also described how to create a fake salary system to mask the fact that jobs are not real.

“This (trace of money) is what the government should see,” he said.

Dr. Alanem told the BBC that he was heavily denied the services offered by Careredu are fraud or that she acted as a staffing agency or provided jobs for money. He said the company only offered him legitimate services, adding that the money he was given had been handed over to a recruitment agent for the transport, accommodation and training of Praise. He said he offered to help praise to find another employer for free.

The BBC also carried out undercover with another recruitment agent based in the UK, Nana Akwasi Agyemang-Prempeh, after several people told the BBC that they had paid tens of thousands of pounds for care for their friends and family, which have not existed.

They said that some of the sponsorship certificates that g -n agyemang -prempeh gave them, turned out to be fakes -Real COS replicas issued by care companies.

We have found that G -n -Agyemang -Prempeh has started offering COS for jobs in the UK in construction -another industry that allows employers to hire foreign workers. He was able to set up his own construction company and obtain a home office sponsorship license.

Our journalist, posing as a Ugandan businessman based in the UK, who wants to bring a Ugandian construction workers to join him, asked Mr Agyemang-Prempeh if this is possible.

He replied that it was – for the price of £ 42,000 ($ 54,000) for three people.

G -AGYEMANG -PREMPEH told us that it has moved into construction, as the rules are “tightened” to the care sector -and claim that agents are watching other industries.

“People now deviate from this,” Mr. Agyemang-Prempeh told an undercover journalist.

More than 470 licenses in the UK care sector were canceled by the government between July 2022 and December 2024. These licensed sponsors are responsible for recruiting more than 39,000 medical professionals and care staff since October 2020.

Later, Mr. Agyemang-Prempeh requested an advance payment for sponsorship certificates that the BBC did not make.

The interior office has already canceled its sponsorship license. Mr. Agyemang-Prempeh’s defense when he was challenged by the BBC was that he himself was deceived by other agents and did not realize that he was selling fake COS documents.

In a statement to the BBC, the interior office said there were “stable new actions against shameless employers who abuse the visa system” and “will ban the business that transfer laws of employment in the United Kingdom to sponsor workers abroad.”

BBC studies have previously revealed similar visa frauds Targeting people in Kerala, Indiaand International students living in the UK who want to work in the care sector.

In November 2024. The Government Advertise employers’ gripping ‘Rogue’ who hire workers from abroadS Moreover, from April 9, care providers in England will be required to prioritize the recruitment of international workers already in the UK Before you dial from abroad.

Investigation Team: Olaronke Alo, Chiagozie Nwonwu, Suchera Maguire, Nyasha Michelle and Chiara Francavilla