Fake Immigration Lawyers Offering ‘Rogue’ Asylum Advice Will Face Fines

New powers will give the Immigration Advice Authority the ability to fine individuals or firms posing as legitimate immigration advisors up to £15,000.

Small boats and outboard motors used by illegal immigrants crossing the English Channel stored at a warehouse facility near Dover in Kent, England, on Aug. 28, 2022. Gareth Fuller/PA Wire

People posing as immigration lawyers who give out “rogue” advice, including on how to file bogus asylum claims, will face fines up to £15,000, the government has announced.

Home Office officials stated on Sunday that there is “growing evidence” of fake lawyers acting as intermediaries for illegal immigrants seeking to exploit the system to remain in the UK. These individuals are also preying on vulnerable people by offering poor-quality or fraudulent immigration advice.

Currently, it is a criminal offence for a person to give immigration advice unless they belong to a recognised legal body or are registered with the Immigration Advice Authority (IAA).

These new powers will give the IAA the ability to fine individuals or firms posing as legitimate immigration advisors up to £15,000.

The measures will be tabled as part of the government’s Border, Security, and Asylum Bill, which is currently going through the report stage in the House of Commons.

The bill also aims to tackle illegal immigration crime, granting law enforcement counter-terrorism style powers to go after people smuggling gangs.

Using Social Media

Minister for Border Security Dame Angela Eagle said these measures will build on the work that the IAA is already doing in regulating the immigration advice sector.

She said: “Shameless individuals offering immigration advice completely illegally must be held to account.

“That is why we are introducing these tough financial penalties for rogue firms and advisers, better protecting the integrity of our immigration system as well as vulnerable people in genuine need of advice, as we restore order to our asylum system through the Plan for Change.”

The Home Office said the IAA had found cases where these fake immigration specialists were using social media to trick people out of thousands of pounds.

The department outlined one case, in particular, where Sukhwinder Singh Kang posed as a registered Level 3 immigration adviser with fake qualifications. He targeted people belonging to Facebook support groups for immigration advice, claiming he had special access to the Home Office. Kang scammed his victims out of thousands of pounds and had taken their personal identity documents.

Sentenced at Southwark Crown Court in October 2024, Kang received an 18-month suspended prison sentence for fraud and for providing unregulated immigration advice.

Boat Crossings

The announcement came after authorities saw record numbers of illegal immigrants arriving in the UK by small boat in the first four months of this year.

As of April 27, 9,885 people have crossed the English Channel in that manner, up 38 percent on the 7,167 who had arrived by that date in 2024.

A Home Office spokesperson recently said, “We are introducing tougher enforcement powers with new legislation, and intensifying our collaboration with France and other countries who face the same challenges by exploring fresh and innovative measures to dismantle the business models of the criminal smuggling gangs.”

The spokesperson said that the government had secured an agreement with French authorities to tackle cross-Channel illegal immigration activities, including the deployment a new elite unit of officers on their coast.

“This government is investing in border security, increasing returns to their highest levels for more than half a decade, and imposing a major crackdown on illegal working to end the false promise of jobs used by gangs to sell spaces on boats,” the department said.

A group of people are brought in by a Border Force vessel following a small boat incident in the English Channel, in Dover, Kent, England, on April 11th, 2025. Gareth Fuller/PA Wire

Last week, the Home Office said that since Labour came to power in July of last year, over 24,000 people with no legal right to be in the UK have been repatriated, an 11 percent increase on the same period 12 months prior.

Deportations of foreign national offenders have also gone up 16 percent since the election, with 3,594 criminals removed.

Organised Immigration Crime Summit

Last month, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said that organised illegal immigration must be tackled at every stage of the journey, from the countries of origin to Britain’s high streets.

At the opening of the Organised Immigration Crime Summit on March 31, Starmer announced an additional £30 million will go to Border Security Command to disrupt people smuggling networks, as well as a further £3 million to the Crown Prosecution Service to increase capacity to prosecute smugglers.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer leads a roundtable discussion at the Organised Immigration Crime Summit at Lancaster House in central London, on March 31, 2025. Kin Cheung/PA Wire

The prime minister had outlined some operations involving collaboration with European partners which were already working to disrupt smuggler routes.

This included a joint operation involving British, French, and German law enforcement which dismantled an Iraqi smuggling network, resulting in multiple arrests and the seizure of equipment used to make the cross-Channel journey, including engines and boats.