A COUPLE have been convicted of masterminding an immigration ring from their Burnley home.

A jury found Shohidul and Anwara Islam guilty of assisting unlawful immigration after shocked officials discovered a Bangladeshi man hiding in their loft under a pile of suitcases.

Hundreds of documents were also found relating to fake passports and national insurance documents during the raid at the couple’s Leamington Avenue home in April 2014, Burnley Crown Court was told.

Border officers said illegal immigrant Shafik Miah, whose six-month visa had expired in October 2011, was discovered after crawling along a floor shaft to a locked bedroom.

The Islam’s initially claimed they thought Mr Miah had either returned to his native country or they had not seen him for a month, after the immigration swoop was conducted, the court heard.

Immigration officer Ian Morrison told the court he had also found a large number of suspicious documents during the raid.

He said he was on a search detail when he went into the master bedroom and spotted a blue Pierre Cardin holdall in a walk-in wardrobe.

“There were a number of cardboard document holders which contained a number of documents,” said Mr Morrison.

The court heard that the bag contained 270 documents relating to fake passports and National Insurance documents.

An inquiry established that at least two of the passports had had photographs substituted or details unlawfully alerted. A number of the suspect passports were Bangladeshi.

The same probe discovered that Abdul Shahid, who helps to run a restaurant in Bolton, was a frequent sponsor concerning the passports.

As well as the assisting unlawful immigration charges Shohidul Islam was also convicted of possession of identity documents with intent and Anwara Islam was convicted of possession of documents without reasonable excuse.

Shahid and Mohammed Uddin, his nephew, both of Bar Street, Burnley, were both found guilty of possession of ID documents with intent. Uddin was found not guilty of a related documents offence, all after a two-week hearing.

All four were remanded on bail by trial judge Simon Newell for sentence on June 26.

The case follows one of East Lancashire’s only people-trafficking convictions, when a 23-year-old woman from Eastern Europe was brought to the UK and held above the Khan Brothers shop in Brougham Street.