Couple jailed for running fake passport factory

Two men and a woman have been jailed for a total of five years after the discovery of a fake passport factory in Willesden.

Last summer officers stopped and searched a car in Bloomsbury Way, central London, and found a large number of fake identity documents.

The trio were arrested and when questioned said they all lived in a five-bedroom house in Yewfield Road, Willesden. Officers searched the address and found a large-scale passport factory in the attic room.

It included embossing equipment, printers, scanners and raw materials to produce counterfeit Italian, Portu-guese, Spanish and other identity cards, passports and driving licences.

The Joint Immigration Crime Team, made up of police and the UK Border Agency, were called to continue the investigation and found a large number of fake documents with two of the offenders' photographs on.

When they were examined by a forgery expert they were found to have been manufactured on equipment in the attic room.

On August 14, Marcos Rodrigues De Oliveria, a 37-year-old Brazilian, was charged with conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation, possession of an article for use in fraud and six counts of possession of false ID documents with intent.

Walter Martins Icardi, 37, who is half-Brazilian and half-Italian, was charged with eight counts of possessing identity documents with intent and possession of articles for use in fraud. Gerciane Beltrame, 29, also a Brazilian and Italian national, was charged with possession of an article for use in fraud.

They were all remanded in custody and appeared at Southwark Crown Court in January.

De Oliveria was sentenced to 28 months in prison and was recommended for deportation. Icardi was sentenced to 24 months and also recommended for deportation.

Beltrame was sentenced to nine months.

Detective Superintendent Chris Foster, of the Joint Immigration and Crime Team, said: "This excellent result has disrupted a sophisticated organised immigration criminal network. The UK Border Agency and Metropolitan Police will continue to work closely to prosecute those responsible for such crime and remove those who cause the most harm to our communities from the UK."