“INTCAS”, Zakaria Saqib Mahmood’s student visa fraud machine exposed
Hundreds of foreign students who attended approved colleges by INTCAS could be forced to leave the UK
What is INTCAS?
Zakaria Mahmood is becoming a known name in the UK bogus college field. A London based ex-convict (((REDACTED))) in London and also under suspicion of recruiting for ISIS in Bangladesh; has opened a new company called INTCAS in the last few years.
This company on paper is “a platform connecting students from across the world to work collaboratively with the global education industry”. However, we have found that this is not exactly true. And it is far from any reality.
An undercover probe found widespread cheating and fraud within INTCAS student visa system which allows about 4,000 foreigners to come into the country annually, prompting the government to suspend the crucial English language tests and forging visa documents.
A couple of INTCAS staff was found helping overseas students pass English language exams, obtain false documents and doctor their academic records by our investigation.
In one case, an undercover reporter paid £1,500 cash to INTCAS office in London for a "guaranteed pass" in an official English test, staged as part of a requirement to prove applicants have the necessary language skills to gain a visa to study at a UK university.
A Home Office statement said: "We have taken action and suspended a couple of colleges already working with INTCAS". It is good to remind our readers that Zakaria Mahmood previously had run another bogus college in Forest Gate, London called “Sinclair Adamson Business School”. This college was raided and shut down by UK Border Agency authorities in 2012. At this college, 397 Pakistani students with no right to work in Britain were caught earning more than £20,000 a year - potentially depriving Britons of a job. At the same college, 62 bogus students wrongly pocketed benefits including housing.
Whistle blowers said INTCAS and Zakaria Saqib Mahmood personally source "fake exam sitters" in order to answer questions or invigilators read out the answers for the candidates. The "fake sitters" submitted their answers to a secure terminal, while the real candidates were called to be photographed as "proof" of taking the test. INTCAS normally charges £2,000 cash in hand for an English test. Forging other academic documents could range from £3,000 to £6,000. In some cases, INTCAS and Zakaria have found forging bachelor degrees for applicants in order to get them postgraduate admissions.
INTCAS and Working with Bogus Colleges
INTCAS has a limited list of bogus colleges which they work with. They only are able get admission from these low quality / low grade colleges. For example, there is no way that any decent university or higher education institution in the UK work with an organised visa scam scheme like INTCAS.
Zakarakia Mahmood, by his scam vehicle INTCAS, gets a CAS number from those bogus colleges. The unique CAS number allows the students to obtain a “Tier-4 student visa” and enter to the UK “legally”. However, more than 80% of these students never show up in any of the colleges. As part of an unwritten deal between INTCAS and the students they will never attend the school. They directly go into the shadows working illegally, joining drugs and grooming gangs or becoming asylum seekers in the UK. INTCAS charges something £10,000 to £15,000 for this service.
Zakaria Mahmood has its own INTCAS agents in countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal. They recruit asylum seekers from those countries and charge them that amount of money for obtaining CAS number and student visa for them.
A whistle blower mentioned that Zakaria and INTCAS have pocketed around £500K only in summer 2015 refugee crisis. They have imported hundreds of asylum seekers under the brand of students in June to September 2015 period.
The truth is that INTCAS works as an agent between bogus colleges and bogus foreign students who eventually become illegals or asylum seekers. These so-called students' intentions to enter the UK could be anything but attending the college. Our report shows most of these students end up working illegally, claiming benefits, committing petty crimes and other social nuisances. In one case, one of INTCAS colleges (called London Spectrum College) had no teachers.
INTCAS, an Example of a Bigger Problem
INTCAS is only one of the several institutions committing crimes and forging documents. The ongoing “significant abuse” of Britain’s border controls by bogus students was revealed in government papers recently.
Foreign students are illegally working for five-figure salaries and claiming benefits, as well as pretending to attend courses that have no teachers.
But a detailed Home Office blitz planned by Theresa May against the migrants and their colleges was being blocked by the previous government
A leaked Cabinet letter written by the Home Secretary reveals that, despite a concerted government crackdown on bogus colleges, “abuse of the system has evolved, not disappeared”.
This suggests that, nationwide, thousands of students may be guilty of working illegally. Investigators also discovered that one INTCAS approved college claimed it had 350 students but only 16 were attending classes. It had recruited 170 more to study at a campus that has no teachers.
Students were regularly found to be living too far away to attend their courses. One college in Belfast had enrolled youngsters who claimed to be commuting from Birmingham.
Regarding this scandal, we tried to contact INTCAS office and talk to Zakaria Saqib Mahmood by telephone. However, they refused to provide any answer.