17-year-old from Birmingham helps UK arrivals dodge Covid tests

A 17-year-old's scam of false paperwork to help UK-bound travellers pass border checks has set off an alarm when the country is slowly coming out of lockdown restrictions.

Malik Younas Fazal with false invoices for which he charges £80, is aiding UK arrivals dodge Covid-19 tests while in quarantine.

Since mid-February, all arrivals in the UK are required to quarantine for ten days.

Travellers arriving from countries on the ‘red list’ have to go to a government-approved hotel. While those arriving from countries off the list can self-isolate at home, and taking two postal tests.

Police had also warned about the sale of fake negative test certificates online and even at airports. Health experts say this could put lives at risk and undermine the vaccination programme with mutant strains entering the country undetected.

Under the government's quarantine 'travel test package', travellers are required to undergo two tests on day two and day eight to determine presence of any Covid mutant strain.

Meanwhile, Fazal's fake invoices helps UK arrivals to dodge the tests required for the compulsory 'travel test package'.

Fazal, from Birmingham has managed to duplicate invoices of CTM, company involved for genuine Covid tests.

He shared the details of his scam with an undercover reporter from Daily Mail and said how one of his client arriving from Germany got around airport border staff by simply showing fake invoices on phone.

Also, the travellers seeking entry into UK need to fill in a passenger locator form, which includes the booking reference number for the 'travel test package'.

He advised the reporter to have the hard copy of the form with the reference number from the fake invoice, which he claimed to be enough to clear border checks.

When contacted by Daily Mail, Fazal, studying applied science at a college said he regretted his actions. Moreover, he denied selling the fake invoice to any German traveller, which he had earlier claimed.