Reverend caught using fake passport in UK

pastor

A Zimbabwean clergyman, Kirk Moyo who had been living in Coventry has been jailed for using a false passport to try and enter the UK.

When stopped at arrivals at Birmingham Airport, Kirk Moyo, of Winnalthorpe Road, Willenhall, tried to convince Border Agency officers that he was Irish after arriving on a flight from Zimbabwe in February, earlier this year. But officers were not satisfied the 59-year-old was the rightful holder of the Irish passport he presented. His luggage was searched and a driving licence, national insurance number and identity card in the name of an Irish man were discovered among his bags.

A driving licence in the name of Reverend Kirk Moyo was also found in his luggage, along with certificates confirming the holder had been ordained as a Minister of Religion for an organisation called the Care for World Missions Fellowship. When stopped at Birmingham Airport, Moyo maintained he was Irish throughout an interview. But disbelieving his story, the immigration officer refused him entry into the UK and he was detained, pending further inquiries. Checks carried out by the UK Border Agency revealed Moyo had entered the UK in his true identity in 1999 on a visitor visa. He was later granted leave to remain until May 2001.

When this expired, he then applied for and obtained an Irish passport and used this false identification to live undetected. On February 16, this year, Moyo was again interviewed by the UK Border Agency. He then admitted his true Zimbabwean – not Irish – identity. He was arrested and charged, under the Identity Cards Act, with two offences of possession of a false identity document. On March 30 Moyo pleaded guilty to both identity fraud offences at Warwick Crown Court. He was sentenced to 12 months for the first offence and six months for the second offence. Both sentences are to run concurrently. Gail Adams, of the UK Border Agency, welcomed the sentence.

She said: “We will not tolerate immigration abuse and will punish those who break immigration laws. We’re rolling out identity cards to make it harder for foreign nationals to commit crimes such as this. “Identity cards for foreign nationals living in the UK lock individuals down to one identity through their facial image and fingerprints. “And when foreign nationals apply for visas at embassies abroad, they now have to give their fingerprints. We have already detected thousands of false identities.”