An Angolan asylum seeker has been jailed for eight months after he used a false Portuguese passport to try and get work.
Leeds Crown Court heard Garcia Cui told probation officers he bought the passport from a man in a pub.
He said he came to the UK in October 2007 on a student visa to escape his native country because he believed he was at risk from authorities because of his human rights activities. He did not take up at place as a student but applied for asylum on political grounds. That was subsequently refused but the court heard he is still going through the appeals process.
He had lived in Wakefield and London before arriving in Huddersfield and lived with a Congolese family.
James Weekes prosecuting said in 2013 Cui was cautioned under a false name for trying to do he same thing to get work, the link to that name was only discovered when his fingerprints were taken on the current offence.
Kate Bissett representing Cui said he had come to this country in desperation because of his fears in his own country and had not wanted to be a drain on society. That was why he had tried to find work.
She said his friends had managed to acquire more documents to support his appeal that his life would be in danger if he was sent back.
Cui, 33 of Robinson Street, Aspley, Huddersfield admitted possession of an identity document with improper intention and fraud.
Sentencing him Judge Tom Bayliss QC said: “You were attempting to use a false passport to gain work for yourself. It is perfectly plain to me given that you have done precisely the same thing before and given a false name when cautioned for that, you are man at heart who is a dishonest man.”
