AN illegal immigrant and failed asylum seeker is beginning nine months in jail today after stealing someone else's identity.Hussein Rostem, of Little Gipping Street, Ipswich, admitted two counts of making a false representation.

AN illegal immigrant and failed asylum seeker is beginning nine months in jail today after stealing someone else's identity.

Hussein Rostem, of Little Gipping Street, Ipswich, admitted two counts of making a false representation.

The 25-year-old had also pleaded guilty to possession of a false identity card and seeking leave to enter or remain in the UK by deception.

Ipswich Crown Court heard Rostem is originally from Iraq, but has extended family in Ipswich. He was transported from Istanbul to England, where he came through Dover in the back of a lorry, before eventually being dropped off in Birmingham.

Prosecutor Peter Gair said Rostem entered the country in March 2003, but his application for asylum was turned down along with a subsequent appeal in February 2004.

He was allowed to stay in the country temporarily, however he was barred from working unless special permission was given.

In 2006 Rostem used the identity of another Iraqi, Falih Saleh Abdul Fateh, who was permitted exceptional leave to remain in Britain, to obtain an extension to that stay.

The application was granted in December 2006. Rostem then used his fake identification to get work at Itchiban UK Ltd in Earl Stonham in October 2007, where he earned just over �200 a week, the court heard.

His criminal activities began to unravel when he applied for a travel document in the name of Mr Fateh, but his photograph revealed he was not the same man.

The UK Border Agency began an investigation which led to the discovery of Rostem's employment, where he was arrested last month.

Rostem admitted the charges against him at an earlier hearing.

Sentencing Rostem, who listened to the hearing through a Kurdish interpreter, Judge Neil McKittrick said: “You flouted UK laws which have been carefully and properly applied.

“This conduct fully deserves a custodial sentence. It deserves it because people like you flout very tight immigration controls passed by parliament.”