Albanian who sneaked into the UK on the back of a lorry and conned his way into top job with police by claiming to be a Kosovar refugee is tracked down to his seaside resort bolthole

  • Elidon Habilaj was able to claim asylum in the United Kingdom with a fake name
  • 40-year-old was jailed for 18 months after gaining citizenship by lying to officials
  • Now the Mail has tracked down the ex-Scotland Yard and Serious Organised Crime Agency intelligence officer to his bolthole in resort of Vlore, Albania

Elidon Habilaj (pictured) claimed to be fleeing torture in war-torn Kosovo

Elidon Habilaj (pictured) claimed to be fleeing torture in war-torn Kosovo

After sneaking into Dover illegally on a lorry, Elidon Habilaj claimed to be fleeing torture in war-torn Kosovo.

In truth, he had come from Albania – but he was able to claim asylum by using a fake name.

Having hoodwinked the authorities and won the right to stay, he might have kept a low profile. Instead, he conned his way into a job with the 'British FBI' hunting fugitives – only to go on the run himself when he was finally found out.

The 40-year-old was jailed for 18 months in his absence after gaining UK citizenship by lying to officials.

Now the Mail has tracked down the former Scotland Yard and Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) intelligence officer to his bolthole in the seaside resort of Vlore in his homeland.

He has spent six years there hiding from the UK authorities he once worked for – even boasting of his experience with the British police to gain security work in Albania. Ironically, Soca – now part of the National Crime Agency, nicknamed the British FBI – had been investigating Habilaj without realising he was one of its employees.

The Albanian arrived in Britain in 1998, and claimed he was a Kosovan named Bekim Ademi. He said his brother had been tortured to death and his father killed by the Kosovan Liberation Army.

British authorities believed him, and he was granted full asylum in November 2001, and citizenship five years later.

He was hired by the Metropolitan Police and later Soca, where he worked as an intelligence officer in its London-based 'fugitive location team', helping to find suspected criminals wanted for extradition. He was finally unmasked after checking his own file on a work database of people of interest. Habilaj even called up a photo of himself on his computer screen in front of his boss.

Belated checks revealed that he had been born in Albania rather than Kosovo, he never had a brother, and his father was alive and still living in his home town. After he absconded before his trial, Judge Martyn Zeidman QC issued a bench warrant, which instructs police to arrest Habilaj if he is traced. The warrants remain live and legally in force until the suspect is caught or voluntarily returns to face justice.

Habilaj was subsequently tried in his absence and jailed at Snaresbrook Crown Court in January 2013 after being convicted of obtaining leave to enter or remain in the UK by deception and fraud.

The sentencing judge Simon Wilkinson said: 'He pretended to be a Kosovan and he was an Albanian who made up tales of atrocities to evoke sympathy.'

But he has successfully evaded British authorities, and this week we found him overseeing building work on a hotel he manages on the outskirts of Vlore.

He also touts himself as a 'freelance security consultant' and boasts to locals of his time working for the British police – without revealing how his time in the UK came to an abrupt end.

When approached by the Mail, Habilaj angrily demanded: 'Who has sent you? Who was it who brought you here?' He then ordered one of his building workers to chase us off the premises.

Now a father of one, Habilaj boasts online that he has a degree and master's in criminology, and also claims to have written books on the subject.

In a post written in Albanian and posted on Facebook in 2015, he described how he worked for the 'highest British agency against crime for almost two years.'

He added: 'Before that, I did work for the Metropolitan Police in London at its prestigious centre of Scotland Yard. It is an organisation dedicated to perfection and professionalism. I was one of them capable of doing the job, recruited for my academic achievements in the field of criminology.'

A spokesman for the National Crime Agency said: 'We continue to work with the Home Office in relation to this case.'

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