Mother jailed for using fake passport to gain employment at care home

A pregnant mother of two has been sentenced to 6 months in prison for using fake documents to gain employment at a Care Home.

Temee Kangootui, 42, had used a Dutch passport and driving license as identity documents to gain employment in a care home in the UK. The documents were sent to the Home Office who confirmed that the passport had been forged; authorities in the Netherlands stated that there was once a passport utilising the same number, however it was reported lost in 2014 and had not been registered since.

Kangootui is originally from Namibia and stated that she had only used the passport to gain employment as a cleaner, in order to “feed and house her family.” Kangootui has two daughters aged 17 and 7, and was also pregnant with a third child at the time.

Kangootui originally came to the UK legitimately using a student Visa, however this expired in 2010, since then Kangootui had obtained the counterfeit passport and a driving license. The passport was obtained from an individual whose surname she could not recall, offering to spon-sor her for £10,000; she believed that the passport was genuine and that this was reflected in the amount of money she paid for it.

Despite a pre-sentence assessment determining that Kangootui was “no risk to anybody” and that there was no evidence of any additional harm caused to the care home residents, it was stated by the prosecutor Lucie Taylor that this kind of offending has an impact on the care industry in general by potentially reducing public trust or putting residents at unneces-sary risk. Recorder Daniel Sawyer added that: “it can also have a grave effect on employers.”

Mr Sawyer concluded that:

"When it comes to sentencing for false identity documents the case law is very clear. For using false documents to gain employment you can expect to go to prison. The law is very clear that this is because these offences undermine the entire system of passport immigration control.”

Pleading guilty to two counts of possessing identity documents with intent, and one count of fraud by false representation, Kangootui was sentenced to 6 months in prison at Bournemouth Crown Court and must pay a £122 victim surcharge.

This provides further evidence that despite the level of seniority of a role, screening candidates is always important to not only prevent risk within the business, but to avoid the possibility of large fines for employing illegal workers.