When police raided Bais Sulaimans south-east London house last September they uncovered 13,000 forged documents along with sophisticated computer and printing equipment. There will be another hearing at Southwark Crown Court on 12 April regarding the confiscation of the equipment.

Sulaiman, who had run the operation for eight years, pleaded guilty to 31 counts of forgery, two of attempting to facilitate illegal entry into the UK and two of handling stolen goods. He asked for 2,639 similar offences to be taken into consideration.

Judge Paul Dodgson said the forgeries were of a sufficiently high quality to have passed for genuine, and said the crime struck at the heart of society.

The counterfeiting set-up allowed Sulaiman to buy an eight-bedroom mansion in his native Nigeria, which included a "shop" to sell the forged UK papers.

His wife, Wuroala, was jailed for 12 months for similar offences along with obtaining housing benefit by deception.

Story by John Davies