Lifestyle

Home Office Insider Sold Asylum Approvals for Cash in Brazen Scam

Published on June 25, 2025

A Home Office immigration officer who was meant to uphold the system instead ended up selling its secrets for cash and now he’s behind bars. Imran Mulla, 39, used his trusted position in the asylum team to manipulate decisions for personal gain, raking in thousands in bribes before he was finally caught, reported BBC.

It all unraveled when one of his targets, a Turkish national, got a suspicious call. The man was told his asylum application would likely be refused unless he paid £2,000. Alarmed, he told his immigration solicitor – and that tip-off led to Mulla’s arrest.

At Preston Crown Court, it was revealed Mulla had been working as an executive officer in the Manchester-based asylum team. He had completed all the necessary training, including how to spot and prevent bribery and corruption. But instead of following the rules, he used his access to the Home Office systems to approach vulnerable people and offer fake fixes for cash, reported the Express.

One of them was 23-year-old Nural Amin Begh, a Bangladeshi national living in Southampton. After Begh was refused asylum on 15 February this year, Mulla reached out to him the very next day. He had obtained Begh’s contact details from official systems and offered to help. Within a week, Begh transferred £1,500 into Mulla’s personal bank account.

From there, it snowballed. Mulla used his position to assign Begh’s case to himself in the system, a clear breach of Home Office policy. He then overturned the original refusal and granted the application, all while more money was being sent his way. Over the following months, Begh transferred a total of £3,500 to Mulla.

And he didn’t stop there. On 7 March, Mulla made that dodgy call to the Turkish asylum seeker, using a fake name and offering a shortcut to approval for a fee. That call triggered alarm bells, and the man’s solicitor reported it. Mulla was arrested on 19 March but didn’t say a word during interviews with police.

Even after his arrest, Mulla continued accepting payments from Begh. But it was game over. He eventually pleaded guilty to a string of serious charges including conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration, bribery, and unauthorised access to computer systems. He’s now serving a four and a half year sentence. Begh also faced the consequences, admitting to his part in the scam and receiving an 18-month sentence.

Frances Killeen from the Crown Prosecution Service summed it up: “Imran Mulla was in a trusted position in the asylum team at the Home Office. He abused that trust to line his own pockets by offering to change the outcome of asylum applications for money.” She added that the case sends a clear message about cracking down on corruption in the immigration system.

This wasn’t just a case of bending the rules – it was a full-on betrayal of the trust placed in those who work at the heart of the UK’s immigration service. And now both Mulla and Begh are paying the price.

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