Uk Border Agency Jobs
A further 5,000 jobs are set to be axed at the UK Border Agency over the next four years, its chief executive said today. Lin Homer said 1,700 job losses had been instituted so far this year but.
. A conman with a handful of poor GCSE results who got one of the highest-ranking jobs at the Home Office has been jailed for a £500million fantasy fraud. Andrew Waldron, 38, was sentenced to four-and-a-half years at Birmingham Crown Court on Friday. It is the third time he has been convicted of deception offences in nine years.
But the fraudster still managed to become head of an investigation unit at the UK Border Agency after lying about his qualifications and hiding his previous criminal convictions. Con: Andrew Waldron was head of a commercial investigation unit attached to the UK Border Agency after lying about his qualifications and hiding his previous criminal convictions Waldron later pocketed thousands of pounds from property companies by claiming he could award them £480million in contracts to house foreign diplomats. Waldron, from Rugby, Warwickshire, was head of a commercial investigation unit at the UK Border Agency, where he had worked from 2005 until his arrest in August 2009.
He used insider knowledge to persuade three asylum accommodation firms, a top London private school, and the manager of an exclusive Kensington apartment complex into believing he was the director of a secret Government intelligence agency, called the Cross Border Intelligence Service (CBIS). Share Waldron told the firms which already had multi-million pound contracts with UKBA that CBIS had tasked him with finding contractors to provide accommodation for thousands of foreign diplomats and their families visiting London. But CBIS did not exist and Waldron used his know-how and contacts to carry out an audacious con which netted him up to £69,000 in just five months. Prosecutor Tim Green said Waldron should never have landed the top Home Office job in the first place because a criminal records check would have uncovered his crooked past. Waldron had pleaded guilty to deception offences at Gloucester Crown Court in 2002 after lying about his qualifications to obtain a manager's job with Gloucestershire Police. Audacious: Prosecutor Tim Green said Waldron should never have landed the top Home Office job in the first place because a criminal records check would have uncovered his crooked past He also lied about his qualifications when first applying for a contractors post with the Home Office in 2005. He was jailed for two and a half years for that in December, after being found guilty of obtaining a pecuniary advantage by deception.
But the lack of checks meant he spent four years at the heart of one of the Governments most security-conscious departments, during which time he earned more than £500,000. By the time he was arrested in August 2009 by West Midlands Police detectives, Waldron was head of UKBA's commercial investigations unit. He was responsible for scores of asylum accommodation contracts, each worth more than £20 million.
Ironically, he also led dozens of long-running UKBA investigations into suspected fraud within the asylum industry. On Wednesday he was due to stand trial for the £500 million fantasy con but opted instead to plead guilty to six counts of fraud. The offences occurred between January and May 2010, after he had lost his UKBA job and was on bail ahead of the trial which finished in December. Prosecutor Mr Green said that Waldron's former job at the UKBA was 'relevant to how he committed these frauds'. 'They (the Home Office) never conducted a Criminal Records Bureau check,' he said. 'Had they done so they would have discovered he was convicted at Gloucester Crown Court (in 2002).
That failure allowed him to gain the contacts, skills and credibility to commit these frauds.' Rossano Scamardella, defending, said Waldron had been an exemplary prisoner and was on the prison governors forum. The future was bleak for someone who was once highly thought of, and his client missed his two sons. In December, Waldron's boss told the court he had been good at his job and helped save the Government millions.
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The disgraced Home Office official's former girlfriend, Ms Hawkey, was originally a co-defendant in the latest charges against Waldron but all charges against her were dropped on Wednesday and ordered to lie on file. Sentencing, Judge Robert Orme told Waldron that there was a compulsive nature to his offending. 'It does beggar belief some of the lies and falsehoods you put forward when you were on bail awaiting trial on another offence,' he said. 'The fact is that CBIS doesn't, in fact, exist at all.' After sentencing, West Midlands Police said: 'We are pleased with the sentence today as this reflects the level of criminality and dishonesty that Andrew Waldron undertook.' The case was brought by West Midlands Crown Prosecution Service Complex Casework Unit lawyer Wendy Bounds, and West Midlands Police Economic Crime Unit.