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NAME/ Albanian man faked father of 13 children to get British passport, sentenced to 5 years in prison
2025-10-15 22:05:50 / AKTUALITET
A Kosovo immigrant posed as the father of 13 Albanian babies to obtain them illegal British passports in exchange for large sums of money.
Petrit Musa , 38, created fraudulent passport applications on behalf of a criminal gang to secure British citizenship for children in exchange for significant sums of money, being jailed for five years at the Criminal Court in London.
Musa, who was granted indefinite leave to remain in the UK in 2021, was successfully issued six passports for his children before his fraud was discovered by the Home Office.
According to the Daily Mail, the Albanian was recruited by the gang after falling into deep debt due to problems with cocaine and gambling. Since he had indefinite leave to remain, his children would have been eligible for British citizenship.
Musa used this status to secure British passports for 13 Albanian babies – none of whom he was related to. The babies were children of Albanian mothers who had travelled to the UK illegally and paid the gang large sums of money for the service.
Musa managed to repay a debt of more than £40,000 through the proceeds, but continued to profit from the fraud even after the matter was resolved, prosecutors said.
Prosecutor Oliver Pateman said selfies were found on Musa's phone showing him holding large amounts of cash and that he had made several large cash deposits at a bank near the Westfield Shopping Centre.
" We would suggest that these were the payments that Musa received from the scheme," the prosecutor said.
Musa made the false applications between June 2022 and October 2024, after which the Ministry of Interior noticed that he had claimed to be the father of several babies with suspiciously close birth dates.
"This is a relatively sophisticated scheme and there is a clear pattern that is followed in each of the 13 cases. His role, although limited to passport applications, is essential for the scheme to succeed overall," the prosecutor stated.
Patrick Maggs, defending Musa, said his client was not making the bulk of the profits from the scam, which would have gone to those higher up in the gang.
"His role was to be the person who put his face and name on the franchise, which was always destined to fail. So he was always the person the authorities would come for, not the ones who earned the bulk of the revenue. He was the puppet," the lawyer said.
Court Registrar James Thomas said he accepted that Musa was not the mastermind of the organisation, but he made significant sums of money from the fraud.
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