British Airways supervisor accused of running £3 million immigration scam from Heathrow

A British Airways supervisor who allegedly ran a £3 million immigration scam from his check-in desk at Heathrow Terminal 5 is on the run in India, according to reports.

The 24-year-old man is accused of charging customers £25,000 each to help them fly with BA without the correct visa documents, exploiting a loophole that allowed him to input false electronic travel authorisation (eTA) data.

The suspect carried out the scam for five years while working at Heathrow Terminal 5 (Picture: Flickr Vision)

His customers, mainly from India, would fly to the UK on a temporary visitor visa, then dash to another country, such as Canada, where they would shred their documents and claim asylum. Canadian officials discovered the scam after noticing a pattern of BA passengers arriving and declaring asylum immediately. They found that the same BA supervisor checked in all the passengers and falsely claimed they had legitimate eTA documents.

The Sun reports that the suspect was arrested on January 6, 2024, but fled the UK from Heathrow to India with his BA ground services partner after being bailed. He is believed to have several homes in India and is being hunted by the police with the assistance of Indian officials.

A source told The Sun: ‘He exploited a loophole, knowing that officials no longer carry out immigration checks but leave them to airline staff. By inputting the wrong data and claiming eTA documents had been secured, he got people to countries they had no permission to enter in the first place. On arrival, the bogus passengers would shred their documents and claim asylum.

A spokesman for BA said: ‘We are assisting the authorities with their investigation.’¹²³ The Home Office said commenting during an ongoing investigation would be ‘inappropriate’.