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A former immigration lawyer resorted to forgery under 'tremendous pressure' because his consultancy business was not doing well, a court heard yesterday.

    Paul Samrai, 39, received a police escort in and out of the fourth-floor Eastern Court when he began testifying against his former partner Tony Man Fong-hang.

   Officials refused to say if Mr Samrai had been given police protection to return to Hong Kong from England for the trial.

   But they said he has been given immunity from prosecution in the territory.

  Man, 54, has denied one charge of conspiracy to forge a document.

  In court yesterday Mr Samrai admitted that he would lie to his clients when he forged supporting documents for their passport applications.

    He said Man had pressed him 'to do whatever was necessary to complete the applications' because most of the clients were Man's family friends.

    Mr Samrai, who is now on parole, was sentenced to three years' jail in England in November 1994 after admitting to forgery when handling Hong Kong applications for a British passport.

    The court was told that in 1989 Mr Samrai decided to set up an immigration consultancy in Hong Kong.

    Through a friend, Mr Samrai was introduced to Man and a London adviser, James Walker.

    Together with local solicitor Desmond Cheung Tak-man, the four set up Opportunities UK in June 1990.

  Mr Samrai said that in the beginning the company mainly dealt with clients who wanted to settle in Britain by establishing a company there.

   Applicants in this category had to stay in the country for four years before permanent residency was granted.

    Mr Samrai said this was not successful because England was not rated highly by Hong Kong people looking to emigrate.

    The company then began using a provision of the Immigration Act whereby people who met certain criteria could apply for a British passport without living there.

   Mr Samrai told the court that most of their clients were trying to emigrate to Britain under that category.

  At first the company was charging clients $125,000 with a discount. The fee was later increased to $1 million per application. Clients were charged on a no-service-no-fee basis.

    The court heard Mr Samrai would get colour photocopies of various letterheads so he could forge supporting letters for the passport applications.

   He said Man not only knew about the forgeries but on occasions he would inspect the quality of the false documents.

   Mr Samrai once made up testimonials from four British hospitals to support the passport application of a 75-year-old doctor.

   To meet Home Office requirements, the company programmed its fax machine to indicate applications and documents were being sent from London.

    The hearing continues before magistrate John Brennan.



Immigration lawyer tells of forgery scam