London, June 27, 2006
Ramesh Choudhry

NRI, Diplomat Sharad Ladva of Barking, east London., 45, married, issued bogus UK visa to his Filipino girlfriend on false applications. He was accused of dozens foreigners alleged to have helped to get into Britain on false applications.

Amanda Pinto, prosecuting lawyer told Southwark crown court that the defendant, a diplomatic service officer, was appointed "entry clearance manager" during his four-year posting to Manila, which began in 1998. Over a 10-month period Mr. Ladva "granted or had other people who worked for him grant false visa applications. In granting those applications, he assisted the applicants to gain entry to the UK. Needless to say, had their applications been properly considered on what was provided, they would not have obtained visas." In order to secure the applications, Mr. Ladva would ask his staff to "fast-track" or "facilitate" the paperwork.

Mr. Ladva "deliberately misused" this process, Ms Pinto said. "He authorize or caused to have others to grant in excess of 30 visas, all of which were applied for with the use of blatantly false documents."

His colleagues raised concerns about irregularities in the paperwork to Mr. Ladva himself, but he had overruled them. Employees stayed quiet until he left the Philippines, when they mentioned their fears to more senior staff. After investigating, where his girl friend was staying, the owner of the house, Filipino woman told the court that he stayed Monday to Thursday and then would return to his wife at the weekend.

When the whole story came out, Mr. Ladva was visited by a Foreign Office official, but denied any wrongdoing. Six months later he was arrested for misconduct in a public office between January 1 and November 30 2002. His mistress was working for a cleaning company and disappeared.