Detail of the crest on the cover of a British passport Times Newspapers

A GANG of immigration fraudsters took advantage of shambolic Government checks to make hundreds of thousands of pounds, a court was told.

Home Office safeguards failed to spot an organised crime gang who submitted dozens of bogus visa applications, Isleworth Crown Court heard.

Prosecutor Francis Sheridan said evidence gathered for the case presented a "damning indictment" of failures by the Government department.

Summing up a case against two alleged Indian illegal immigrants accused of running Britain's biggest visa fraud factory, the barrister said jurors may be surprised that no-one spotted the scam.

He said: "The Home Office system was designed to operate with trust. The evidence shows it was naive in its conception and a shambles in reality.

"[It may have been] a total shambles, but it did not justify someone taking full advantage [of it] to cheat the system time and time again as those at Univisas did."

The jury heard how a third member, who has pleaded guilty, was caught on camera boasting how officials do not check applications and "just stamp them blindly."

Solicitor Jatinder Sharma, 44, offered to obtain a post-graduate diploma in business administration and other fraudulent documents for about £4,000.

He told an undercover newspaper reporter that work permits were "very risky" but that the Highly Skilled Migrant Programme (HSMP) "will do good for you."

He said: "We have a very good reputation. The colleges we get our paperwork from are all listed colleges - so no risk."

Sheridan said: "What a reputation to have - to describe it (the Home Office) as unfit for purpose is an insult to the English language."

The Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner (OISC) was also criticised.

Sheridan said evidence revealed that applications in which important information was omitted were approved nevertheless.

The prosecutor also said exams to qualify as an immigration adviser were wide open to fraud as they could be taken online.

Sheridan said there was little chance anyone at the OISC intelligence unit would detect organised criminal attacks.

He said: "Was there anyone with intelligence in the intelligence unit to design a scheme like that?"

Metropolitan Police officers and officials from the UK Border Agency swooped on Univisas, based in Southall, west London, in February 2008.

They discovered a mountain of 90,000 documents including false university certificates, academic records, bank statements and pay slips.

Investigators seized 980 individual files and of a sample 117 analysed in detail, 113 were found to contain fraudulent information.

The alleged fraud focused on abusing the HSMP, the International Graduate Scheme and other 'leave to remain' applications.

Those behind the scam were so confident that they offered a money back guarantee to clients, who they charged fees ranging from hundreds to thousands of pounds.

Sharma, who submitted a string of false documents to remain in the UK after travelling here as a visitor in 2003, pleaded guilty to several offences at an earlier hearing.

His wife Rakhi Shahi, 31, and a second woman Neelam Sharma, 38, who may also be his wife, are on trial accused of immigration offenses, conspiracy to defraud and possessing criminal property.

Sheridan described Shahi as an accomplished liar and crook who falsely accused Sharma of being a domineering beast who beat her but was in fact the brains behind the business.

The prosecutor said former teacher Neelam Sharma, who has two children by Sharma, was also a committed liar who worked in the "engine room" putting together the bogus files.

The jury was told that the trio lived together in Clarence Street, Southall, and hid behind a complex web of false identities and documentation. They were also told that the accused outsourced the production of many false documents to a handful of bogus colleges that functioned mainly as fronts for visa scams.

One former employee, who was paid £100 a week for administrative work, described how she handed over a bag of £64,000 in £50 notes at one college in return for a pile of certificates.

The jury is expected to retire to consider verdicts tomorrow afternoon.