Case No. UKUT-00450(IAC)

meetings and spanned a period of two – six weeks. Ultimately, he signed the statement and it was sent with other documents to the FtT. (23) The Tribunal probed this issue with the Appellant with a view to securing as full an understanding as possible of both the contents of and the omissions in a statement made, with legal advice, by a person who is clearly intelligent and well educated and is a successful and experienced business man.(24) Chronologically, the first main chapter in the Appellant’s story is that of how he made arrangements to undertake the two TOEIC tests. The Appellant’s first witness statement contains the following passage: “When I decided to apply for a Tier 1 Entrepreneur Visa, I approached Oaks solicitors for assistance in preparing my Entrepreneur application. Prior to making my application, I decided to sit my English Language test at ETS Global UK at Cauldon College, 2nd Floor, 9 City House, Cranbrooke Road, Ilford, IG1 4DU. This was because the English language requirement was a mandatory requirement for my application. I am very fluent and conversant in the English language. I had no doubt or hesitation in passing the test. In fact, I have qualifications in Nigeria which were the equivalent of a Degree in the UK. The only difficulty was that because I was travelling so frequently in and out of the country for business, I did not have the time to obtain my qualifications from Nigeria to have it [sic] verified …. as being equivalent to a UK Degree. My solicitors did advise me to do this but I did not have the time and so I decided to sit the English language test in the UK. In fact, since the cancellation of my visa when my solicitors advised me to obtain NARIC verification, it has taken them from November 2014 to February 2015 to obtain the verification. It was a long winded procedure.”Oaks solicitors are the firm which has represented the Appellant throughout the litigation process, beginning with his appeal to the FtT. (25) Oaks solicitors did not feature at all in the Appellant’s evidence to the Tribunal relating to this discrete issue. Rather, his evidence was that when he was applying for his entrepreneur’s visa he sought advice from a friend (largely unidentified, though the Appellant belatedly divulged a forename). This gave rise to his friend’s lawyer “booking” the test for him. The test (singular) arrangements were then communicated to the Appellant by a text message. Pausing at this juncture, we observe that none of this evidence is contained in either of the Appellant’s written statements. We have drawn attention to the use of the singular in the Appellant’s descriptions of the “test” as it was abundantly clear to us that he was purporting to describe a single, isolated event in his evidence to the Tribunal.(26) When the Appellant was questioned more closely about this topic by the Tribunal, his replies disclosed four noteworthy facts. First, he does not know the name of the solicitors who (he claims) made the TOEIC test arrangements for him. Second, he does not know their place of business, though he believes it to be somewhere in East London. Third, he has not communicated with these solicitors at any time since the tests. Fourth, the solicitors have not levied a professional fee for their services, the Appellant has made no enquiries in this regard and no payment has been made. (27) Sequentially, the next issue canvassed in some depth at the hearing concerned the test centre where (per the first of the TOEIC certificates) the Appellant claims to have undertaken the first of the two tests, on 28 February 2013. In his first, detailed written statement, the Appellant states that he underwent this test at Cauldon College. This, of course, was the listening and reading test. However, in his evidence to the Tribunal, the Appellant gave the following, markedly different account, none of which is replicated even obliquely in his witness statements. He claimed that he was driven by his chauffeur to Cauldon College, where he entered the reception, paid his fee and was then given the address of another centre. He was driven to the other centre, where he presented his identification and registered using his passport. Following this he underwent a test in a room where he chose his own seat, in the presence of an unspecified number of others and an invigilator. Later, he suggested that there were some 20 candidates. He could not recall where he was seated. The invigilator did not speak to him at any time. No one asked for his passport. Why was none of this included in the Appellant’s witness statements? He could not say.(28) It is true that in the Appellant’s first detailed statement he describes undergoing two separate tests on the two dates specified in the TOEIC certificates. However, in his description of the events and circumstances pertaining to the tests, he makes no distinction between them. This extends to saying nothing whatsoever about different venues. Furthermore, his estimate of 20 candidates contrasts with his inability to (even) estimate any number in his oral testimony, initially. Nor can one reconcile his oral testimony that he had no recollection of where he was seated with his written evidence that on one of the test dates (unspecified), he was seated “next to a window”. (29) The Appellant’s assertion about the events of 28 February 2013, concerning the first limb of the TOEIC test, was, inevitably, probed in a little detail. The kernel of his story was that he was driven to Cauldon College, where he registered and paid the requisite fee and was redirected to Queensway College, to which he was driven by his chauffeur. At one stage of his evidence the Appellant was asked several times by the Tribunal: