Lawyer caught offering to make illegal-worker fine go awayTo play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.This video can not be playedFigure caption, Lawyer Mohammad Alias Yousaf advised how to avoid paying a £45,000 illegal-worker fineByEd Thomas, UK editor, Rebecca Wearn and Patrick ClahanePublished25 minutes agoA solicitor has been secretly filmed by the BBC explaining how he could make a £45,000 illegal-working fine go away.Mohammad Alias Yousaf - also known as Alias - made the claim to an undercover reporter, who was posing as a mini-mart owner facing a fine for employing an illegal worker.The Bradford-based solicitor told his potential client he could avoid paying the fine, if he could find someone overseas prepared to declare themselves the owner of the mini-mart.Alias has denied ever providing such advice to anyone, or giving false information to the Home Office. At least £150m is currently owed to the government in uncollected illegal-working fines, according to Home Office figures obtained by the BBC.In response to our investigation, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has announced a review of the way such fines are issued and collected.In a statement, she said she wanted to thank the BBC "for exposing those who undermine our rules".Many business owners do not take the fines seriously, a law enforcement official has told us anonymously.She told us she had seen immigration fine notices, "some worth £40,000, stuffed in a box" on a mini-mart counter.When she had asked a member of staff if the business owners intended to pay, she said she had been told: "'It's got nothing to do with me.'"Image source, FacebookImage caption, A number of social media videos, like this one, advertised Alias's details (phone details blurred out)Alias came to our attention during a wider BBC probe into illegal working and criminality linked to some High Street businesses, including mini-marts and barbershops.His name was mentioned in social media videos, including on Kurdish Facebook pages, where business owners in the UK praised his ability to resolve problems linked to immigration fines.For months we monitored these videos, which carried Alias's name, that of his law firm, Liberty Solicitors, and a mobile phone number. Some had more than 20,000 views.In one, a Kurdish-speaking shop owner explained that, after having been issued with a penalty for employing an illegal worker, he had "tried two or three different places to get it sorted but nobody could resolve it".He went on to say that "Mr Alias" had got the fine cancelled - showing a letter as evidence.Alias told the BBC he had not commissioned, paid for, approved or circulated videos on social media.'Do you have anybody's name we can use?'Our reporter contacted Alias on the phone, claiming to be a business owner who faced a fine after immigration officers had found somebody working at his mini-mart illegally.There was no actual shop, worker, or fine.During the call, which we recorded, Alias told our reporter his services would cost 10% of the fine - in this case, £4,500 - and he would want money up front.Alias explained how liability for the fine could be shifted to somebody outside the UK, if that person could be named as owner of the business."Do you have anybody's name who we can use? Anybody who's gone back to Iraq, gone back to Iran?" he asked.He then offered a fictitious example: "Say we put forward Karwan, yeah? Then fine come on Karwan's name. Karwan not here, Karwan in Iraq."What Alias appeared to be proposing was the use of a "ghost director" - in other words, someone who is paid to put their name on official documents, thereby masking the real owner of a business.Using ghost directors is a widespread illegal practice, the law enforcement official told us.To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.This video can not be playedFigure caption, Watch: Business owners facing fines "just laugh in my face", says anonymous law enforcement officialBryony Rest, a senior immigration lawyer who listened to the recorded conversation, said it was "quite appalling" that a solicitor would appear to suggest a false name for the business owner,Our reporter told Alias that to mask the real owners of the mini-mart, other people had been paid to put their names on its lease and utility bills.The solicitor sounded encouraged by this news. "OK, fine," he said. "Then I think we should be able to find a way out of this."Unpaid finesAn employer in the UK, who hires a worker with no legal right to work, faces being fined.In 2024, the maximum penalty for knowingly employing illegal workers rose from £15,000 to £60,000.A total of 5,755 fines were issued for illegal working between 2021-2025, the Home Office has told us. These would have been worth a total of £215m, but only £60.5m has been collected.The Home Office points out that not all fines issued in the past five years would have been paid during the same time period, and the amount collected would always be lower than the value of the fines, because of appeals or discounts for fast payment.'I'm not the owner of the shop'Fitted with a secret camera, our reporter went to Alias's office in Bradford with £250 as an upfront payment.Alias seemed annoyed, having originally asked for £500, and made a show of counting out the notes, but did not provide a receipt.Our reporter had by this time told Alias he had found someone in the Kurdish Region of Iraq ready to declare they were the owner of the mini-mart business.From Alias's office, the reporter rang this supposed contact, a man who gave his name as Saman. In reality, Saman was another BBC undercover journalist based in the UK.As a solicitor, Alias could only ethically argue the case for transferring the fine if Saman were to declare to him, either verbally or in writing, that he was the real owner of the business.In our secret recording of their conversation, Alias repeatedly asks Saman to confirm this, despite knowing there is a question mark over the mini-mart's true ownership.Alias's frustration appears to mount with each attempt.Alias: "Am I right in thinking that you are the owner of the shop and I'm going to write to them explaining that you're the owner of the shop?"Saman: "I'm not the owner of the shop, but I'm ready to transfer it to my name."Alias: "OK, but I'm going to be writing to them [the authorities] to explain that you're the owner of the shop."Saman: "I am happy to do that yeah but also you do know, I am not the owner of the shop? And I've not even seen this shop before!"Alias: "If you're saying that to me, then I can't do that. You understand? I can only do it if you're telling me, you are the owner of the shop."Alias then tries to reassure Saman, telling him: "They might say, 'OK, you have to pay this money.' We don't pay the money. That's the end of it. Case finished."Asked if he has handled similar cases, Alias tells Saman he does it "all the time for people who get fines".Image caption, Alias at his office in BradfordWe showed our recordings to Bryony Rest, who described Alias's conduct as amounting to "perverting the course of justice", and said he should be struck off.She also noticed from the recording that, late in his meeting with the two reporters, Alias's manner suddenly changed, as if he had become suspicious."I can't advance an untruthful or dishonest... version of events," he is heard saying, before telling the men to decide among themselves who owns the shop.However, Rest noted that it had been Alias himself who originally suggested "the untruthful version of events".Image source, Phill Edwards / BBCImage caption, Senior immigration lawyer, Bryony Rest, says Alias may have been perverting the course of justiceLater, Alias sent the undercover reporter a series of messages appearing to withdraw his offer of help.In a subsequent phone call, he repeated that he would not pursue an untruthful claim and said he would arrange for the £250 down payment to be repaid.The money has still not been returned, but Alias says Liberty Solicitors has made numerous attempts to return the cash.Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood told us the new review into the illegal-working fines scheme would aim "to ensure we are able to respond to non-compliance and non-payment through all available means".Alias has denied ever advising anyone to put a penalty into the name of someone who was not responsible for a business, or to give false information to the Home Office, and said he never would."My work is to challenge penalties lawfully, through the routes Parliament has provided, usually on the basis that the person found was not an employee at all," Alias told the BBC.He added that when our reporter proposed putting his business into someone else's name, Alias had told him in writing he could not advance an untruthful or dishonest case and did not act for him.Additional reporting by Phill Edwards and Ben MilneRelated topicsUK High StreetsUK immigration