A WOMAN has avoided jail after being charged with fraud and giving unregulated immigration advice.  

Johanna Loader, 35, of Oberon Way, Oxley Park, pleaded guilty to four counts of providing unregulated immigration advice and services and three of fraud, after an investigation by the Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner (OISC).

She was handed a 12-month custodial sentence suspended for two years at Southwark Crown Court on Monday, August 7.

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An investigation by OISC, the body responsible for regulating the provision of immigration advice and services in the UK, revealed that between July 31, 2014, and November 12, 2015, Loader gave immigration advice to advice seekers when she was not qualified to do so.

She also committed the following frauds between August 2014 and June 2015 where she obtained £11,298. 

Loader told a couple that she could arrange a house for them from a local council.

She informed another victim that she had submitted an application to stay within the UK but had since received a refusal letter from the Home Office and was in the process of appealing. 

To a fourth, she said she had submitted housing and passport applications, and these were taking longer than expected. 

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All these claims were false. She carried out none of this work and because money was paid, the statements were fraudulent. 

Sentencing, Recorder Mukul Chawla said: “You held yourself out as being qualified to provide advice and to make representations on behalf of a number of people, and you took, and I make no bones about this, quite cynical advantage of vulnerable people relying on you to provide help and were willing to pay quite a significant amount of money for that help.

 “I am not prepared to accept that was an opportunist event but one that you repeated on a number of occasions, all for the simple reason for making money dishonestly.”  

 John Tuckett, Immigration Services Commissioner, said: “Ms Loader's crimes had a serious effect on her victims charging them thousands of pounds in so-called ‘fees’ for work they thought she was undertaking.

“The severity of the sentence sends its own message as to how seriously such crimes are seen by the Courts.

“The OISC will continue to investigate and prosecute those who break the law by providing immigration advice when they are not qualified to do so.

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“This case highlights the need for people seeking immigration advice to check before handing over any monies, whether their advisor is fully qualified and registered to provide that advice.

“The OISC website has an Adviser Finder facility where qualified immigration advisors can be identified”.