Home Office investigating after BBC catches lawyer offering to make fines go away

The Home Office has launched an investigation after a solicitor was secretly filmed by the BBC explaining how he could make a £45,000 illegal-working fine go away.

Mohammad Alias Yousaf - also known as Alias - made the claim to an undercover reporter, who was posing as a mini-mart owner facing a fine for employing an illegal worker.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority has said it will also examine the BBC's findings to see whether there has been misconduct by solicitors or law firms.

The Bradford-based solicitor told his potential client he could avoid paying the fine if he was able to find someone overseas prepared to declare themselves the owner of the mini-mart.

Yousaf has denied ever providing such advice to anyone, or giving false information to the Home Office.

The BBC's wider investigation also revealed at least £150m is currently owed to the government in uncollected illegal-working fines, according to Home Office figures exclusively obtained by the BBC.

In response, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood ordered a review of the way such fines are issued and collected.

Mahmood said she wanted to thank the BBC "for exposing those who undermine our rules".

"Illegal working undermines honest employers, undercuts local wages, and fuels organised immigration crime," she added.

• Watch the full film of Ed Thomas's investigation here, external

The Home Office said it would be investigating the allegations to see whether there had been a breach of immigration rules.

Senior politicians have since called UK immigration enforcement "weak" and a "laughing stock".

Shadow home secretary Chris Philp has called for Yousaf to be "struck off as a solicitor", while shadow justice minister Nick Timothy has written to the head of the regulator for solicitors to take "urgent action, and stop Mr Yousaf practising as a solicitor".

Philp said: "Shabana Mahmood likes to boast about how many fines are issued, but now it turns out most just get ignored. No wonder we have a borders crisis with enforcement turning into a laughing stock."

A spokesman for the Solicitors Regulation Authority said: "We will be considering this information to see if there are any issues arising which we need to look into further."

The BBC also heard from a law enforcement whistleblower who, speaking anonymously, revealed it was a struggle to identify the real owners of businesses caught with illegal workers.

She said she had seen immigration fine notices, "some worth £40,000, stuffed in a box" on a mini-mart counter.

"I've said to owners 'I see you've got a fine, are you going to pay it?' And they just laugh in my face, throw the fine back in a box and say 'it's got nothing to do with me'."

Over the past 18 months, the BBC has carried out a wider probe into illegal working and criminality linked to some High Street businesses, including mini-marts and barbershops.

Our undercover reporter, who pretended to have a £45,000 illegal working fine, secretly recorded Yousaf saying he could transfer the penalty into someone else's name for a fee of £4,500.

Yousaf has denied ever advising anyone to put a penalty into the name of someone who was not responsible for a business, or to give false information to the Home Office, and said he never would.

"My work is to challenge penalties lawfully, through the routes Parliament has provided, usually on the basis that the person found was not an employee at all," Yousaf told the BBC.

He added that when our reporter proposed putting his business into someone else's name, Yousaf had told him in writing he could not advance an untruthful or dishonest case and did not act for him.

The government said "arrests and raids are at their highest ever levels and removals of illegal workers up 50%".