Case No. UKUT-00133-(IAC)

[2017] UKUT 121 as support for the (uncontroversial) proposition that dishonesty was needed to support a refusal under paragraph 320(7A) and that a mere mistake will not suffice. Mr Turner further supported this proposition by reference to the respondent’s published guidance of 6 December 2019, version 2.0, ‘False Representations’ (page 6 states that “you must not refuse if… a person has made a genuine mistake… or was unaware that the false representation had been made… or has merely claimed something to which they were not entitled without any dishonest intention.” Mr Turner also relied on Balajigari at [43] which stated that an allegation of dishonesty was a serious allegation and carried with it serious consequences, that the Secretary of State had to therefore be satisfied that dishonesty occurred, and that the standard of proof was the balance of probabilities “… but bearing in mind the serious nature of the allegation and the serious consequences which follow from such a finding of dishonesty”.35.Mr Turner contended that a “high threshold for the burden” of proving dishonesty had to be met by the respondent and that the respondent could not discharge this burden because this applicant disclosed rather than concealed the relevant information by voluntarily informing the Immigration Liaison Officer about his sister. This materially undermined the respondent’s conclusion that he had been dishonest. Mr Turner relied on the view of Lady Justice Rose that “… there was no particular reason for [the applicant] to [have volunteered the information about his sister] if he was trying to hide the fact that he had a sister here”, and that “it seems to be agreed that having or not having a sister here would not have affected his application for a student visa, so there was no reason to have lied about.”36.Mr Turner submitted that the respondent failed to properly consider the rationale for the applicant allegedly concealing information about his sister, especially given the lack of significance of this information. If he truly intended to conceal the existence of his sister it would have been irrational for him to then disclose this information, unprompted, to the Immigration Liaison Officer at the airport.