AN ILLEGAL immigrant who had a false passport and counterfeit asylum registration card has been jailed for 15 months.

Catherine Rubia used the forged documents, each in different names, to get jobs, open bank accounts and even secure a £17,000 loan.

But in reality the 44-year-old was in the UK illegally after arriving in 2003 – though she may have been here longer having got in on a false Jamaican passport.

Now as well as being jailed the Kenyan faces the likelihood of deportation when she has completed her time behind bars.

Colin Meeke, prosecuting, told Swindon Crown Court how Rubia opened a bank account in November 2004 using a fake Kenyan passport and fake work visa.

He said she would later admit that the document, which she still insists is genuine, was bought from a man at London’s Victoria Station for £500.

In December 2006 she used it to secure a job as a care worker with Homeleigh Care, where she worked without any problems, paying income tax and National Insurance.

The following September she then secured the loan from Barclays, who would not have advanced her the money had they known she was an illegal immigrant.

Mr Meeke said she then used the passport and visa to get a new job, at Lifestyle Care Homes, in February 2009.

He said the following year she applied to the Home Office seeking asylum, claiming to be a Somalian called Abi Musa.

She was issued an asylum registration card in that name which she used to open a bank account with Lloyds.

Earlier this year the UK Border Agency became suspicious of her and when she was interviewed she accepted what she had been doing was illegal.

Rubia, of Edinburgh Street, Gorse Hill, admitted two counts of possessing false documents with intent, three frauds and two deceptions.

Rob Ross, defending, said his client had come to the UK to better herself and never claimed any benefits, which she could have done with the paperwork she had.

“As well as paying tax and National Insurance he said she worked hard in the caring profession while she was here.

“Had she not been arrested she would have completed her NVQ-3 having already done one and two,” he said.

Passing sentence, Judge Douglas Field said: “You used a false Kenyan passport and latterly a false asylum card in carrying out your normal business in this country.

“You obtained employment, I accept you might have worked in a highly satisfactory way caring for people, but the fact is you were not entitled to this employment.

“You were only given this employment because your employers thought these documents were genuine, but you knew they were false.

“In later years you came by this asylum registration card: you got that by being entirely dishonest saying you were from Somalia and giving a false name.

“My understanding is as a result of the sentence I have imposed you will be liable for deportation.”