An Indian national has been told he faces deportation after pleading guilty to a charge of breaching immigration law.

Sagar Joon, 25, was part of an international organised crime group that targeted the Isle of Man immigration system.

He had initially pleaded not guilty to the charge of conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration.

But speaking through an interpreter, he changed his plea to guilty at a hearing this week before Deemster Graeme Cook.

The particulars of the charge state that Joon together with Zameer Saibole and Vijay Sandhu and persons unknown conspired between March 2022 and the end of June 2023 to facilitate a breach or attempted breach of immigration law.

This was namely by producing a false job offer letter and applying for a certificate of entry and visa, thereby obtaining their victim’s leave of entry by deception.

Others named in the charge are still at large, having absconded from the UK.

The Deputy High Bailiff’s court heard last year that it was the Crown’s case that the island’s immigration system had been targeted by a transcontinental organised crime group.

Fake job offer letters had been produced, along with falsified certificates of entry.

Joon had told his victim that he could get her a visa, but that it would cost her £25,000, an amount he said had been discounted from £30,000.

When she said she did not have the money, the defendant told her he could pay some of it, and she would then be in debt to him.

The woman was later told that her certificate of entry was fake and there was no job for her.

She is then said to have been offered £12,500 to go back to India and not to talk to the authorities. It is understood that she is still in the Isle of Man.

The prosecution cited the involvement of a sham company called Destiny Manpower Consultancy, based at Demesne Road in Douglas.

Mr Joon was arrested at Heathrow Airport on Sunday, June 16, and has spent just shy of 17 months on remand in custody, prosecutor James Robinson told the Court of General Gaol Delivery this week.

In a basis of plea, Joon described his role as a facilitator who ‘very much had a lesser role’.

He said he was the person who introduced the victim to Mr Saibole and Mr Sandhu and acted as their go-between.

The defendant said he was not responsible for creating any falsified documents for the visa application.

Joon, previously of Berwick Road, Hayes, Middlesex, will be sentenced on November 5 when a victim impact statement could be read out in court.

Prosecutor Mr Robinson said the sentencing deemster, Deemster Kainth, may take the view that the defendant is time-served, given the time he has already spent in custody.

Joon was told that potential deportation and exclusion orders will be dealt with at sentencing.

There was no application for bail, and the defendant was remanded in custody until November 5.