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Diasporia News of Thursday, 3 June 2004

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Passport cheat deported

A former employee of Lambeth's education department in the UK who used a forged passport to get her job has been deported.

Cynthia Ocran was arrested after she applied for a new national insurance number in order to get child benefit.

Administrators became suspicious of the application and in early March police launched an investigation.

They discovered that Ocran had previously used a false national insurance number and that her passport was forged.

She was arrested on May 5, then deported back to her native Ghana two weeks later.

Lambeth chief internal auditor Mohamed Khan said: "Close working between Lambeth police, immigration authorities and Lambeth's internal audit team has led to this successful result.

"We have a zero-tolerance attitude towards fraud and will do everything we can to protect Lambeth residents and ratepayers."

Ocran had also gained a council tenancy on the back of her forged documents and the property has since been recovered by Lambeth.