With a multi-million-pound property empire, a BMW with personalised number plates and a son who attended Eton, VP Lingajothy enjoys the trappings of a successful lawyer.

In a career spanning two decades, he has presented his lucrative work as a humanitarian mission and boasts how far he goes to help the desperate refugees he represents.

Just last year he addressed the UN Human Rights Council in Switzerland and he has previously described how the stories he has heard from clients left him with 'tears in my eyes'.

Mr Lingajothy, who came to the UK from Sri Lanka in 1983, lamented: 'Sometimes victims who have been through so much unfortunately get lumped together with those who give fake stories to immigration authorities.'

He said he 'couldn't live with himself' if he didn't try his best for clients he knew were telling the truth and once put his 'career on the line' by trying to get a judge impeached after he rejected an asylum application.

But – as undercover reporters discovered when they visited him at the offices of Duncan Ellis Solicitors in Colliers Wood, south London – Mr Lingajothy has a strange version of truth.

When asked what he could do to help an economic migrant to stay in the UK, he immediately outlined the extraordinary and entirely fictional story involving torture, beatings, slave labour, false imprisonment and death threats that he would use for an asylum and human rights claim – in return for a fee of £10,000.

He told the journalists, who were posing as a farmer from the Punjab newly arrived on a small boat and his UK-based uncle helping him, it would involve pretending to be a supporter of a Sikh separatist group in India.

'You can say that the Indian government accused you of being pro Khalistani, you were taken into custody, arrested and you were ill treated, tortured, sexually tortured,' he said. 'That's why you couldn't marry and you were frustrated, you wanted to commit suicide.'

After his parents bribed guards to spring him from jail, the migrant was forced to pay a people smuggler to help him escape persecution in his homeland and flee to France, the story went on.

But this turned out to be going from the 'frying pan to the fire' because the trafficker held him as a captive until the full fee was paid, according to the tale conjured up. It then gets more dramatic: 'They put him in modern slavery conditions. He can't go out.

'He has to work in hard labour [on a] building site. He can't escape. His passport and everything is taken away.'

Making a throat slashing gesture with his finger, he explained how the non-existent people smugglers had threatened to kill the reporter's family in the Punjab if they weren't paid.

He added: 'Also they kept him in a brothel. He was cleaning the toilets and looking after the prostitutes and all that kind of thing.

'The girls are from Eastern Europe. This guy is working more or less as a nanny for those women.'

Finally our reporter was to claim he met someone who managed to help him on to a small boat and cross the Channel, he continued. 'The story must go like that.'

And Mr Lingajothy stressed the reporter must claim to be pro-Khalistani for the asylum claim, as 'that way I will win your case' – it did not matter if he actually supported a different party.

Drawing a diagram of a target with asylum at the centre and human rights on a larger outer ring, the lawyer explained how he would expand the claim to have a greater chance of success.

'I need to use another law called trafficking law,' the legal adviser said. 'If you are going to simply claim asylum only it's very difficult. The second thing is called HR, human rights. That is relatively easy, right.' Clutching his head for emphasis, he added: 'And you've got some psychological problems.'

From the drawer of his desk covered in files from other cases, he produced a packet of anti-depressant pills for the reporter to hand to the Home Office as supposed evidence of his mental trauma.

'In your story I will also include this medication and when you were released [from jail in India] you went to see a doctor and the doctor prescribed all the medicines I have here,' he said.

'But I won't say I am giving it to you, say your doctor in India gave it.' Mr Lingajothy also promised he could obtain a psychiatric report to back up the claim that our journalist was suicidal, saying: 'I will prepare you what to tell the doctor.'

The outline he was giving at the first meeting was just the 'skeleton' of the story, he said, saying that he would flesh it out with more details to make it realistic: 'I have to give him the time, the month, the year... the story will be very carefully handled.'

He told our team they could take notes of the concocted story to help learn it, but nothing else or it risked compromising him.

'We don't allow to record because lawyers are not allowed to give stories. So we don't allow recording,' he stressed. Later, on learning the UK authorities had no record of the migrant's arrival, Mr Lingajothy advised him to change his story about how he came from France and say he came on a lorry not a boat, as it would help his claim.

'Say that in the lorry there were metals and building material, wires they were transporting. You were inside a box behind them,' he said as he went on to expand the story. Published court judgments show that Mr Lingajothy has been representing asylum seekers at immigration tribunals since at least 2004.

In January he successfully appealed and won a new hearing for an Indian woman's asylum claim, despite a judge in the lower tribunal ruling that her credibility was 'completely undermined' after she made false claims of being detained, tortured and sexual assaulted.

In July 2021, My Lingajothy successfully appealed over a rejected asylum claim for a Sri Lankan woman after her version of events was described by a judge as 'bizarre and extraordinary'.

In February 2019, a judge threw out an appeal he lodged on behalf of a client who claimed to have been 'held in captivity and tortured in Sri Lanka' after another judge described the story as 'entirely devoid of any truth'.

Mr Lingajothy told the Mail these cases had initially been handled by different caseworkers and solicitors and his firm took them on only at the appeal stage after the initial application had failed.

He said in all cases he was acting in the best interests of his clients.

Mr Lingathjothy and his wife share an eight-bedroom, £1.7million family home and have a property and business empire that includes a successful care home in Somerset and a building company, according to public records.

His children have attended top public schools, including Eton. Mr Lingajothy said his wife funded this part of their education.

Approached by the Mail, he denied making any false stories, and appeared to claim his actions were due to confusing our undercover reporter with another client. He was representing Duncan Ellis Solicitors, which is registered with the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

He is not a solicitor, but said he was previously a government-registered immigration case worker and now an associate member of the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives – allowing him to work under the supervision of a solicitor.

He said his position with Duncan Ellis was notified to the SRA and means he can give consultations and represent the firm at tribunals as long as the firm's principal solicitor checks his files randomly to ensure good practice and correct standards.

But Anbananden Sooben, from Duncan Ellis, said Mr Lingajothy was unsupervised when he met our reporters because a solicitor was not 'present nor informed about the consultation'. He added: 'The behaviours exhibited by Mr Lingajothy, as recorded in your investigation, are completely contrary to the principles and values of our firm and contrary to the law of the country and SRA rules.'

Mr Sooben said his firm upheld the 'highest ethical and professional standards', took the allegations 'extremely seriously', had sacked Mr Lingajothy and reported the matter to the SRA as well as 'conducting a thorough internal investigation'.

'We are actively cooperating with the relevant authorities and will support any investigation into this matter,' he said.

'Don't admit you came here to work – they will send you back'

On a quiet high street in Merton, south-west London, tucked in between corner shops, cafes and dry cleaners, scores of young men wait outside Rashid and Rashid Solicitors.

Some queue for as long as five hours for an appointment with Rashid Ahmad Khan, who operates on a strict first come first served basis, and one thing is clear: business is booming.

Inside his office, where a large bust of the black Albanian eagle sits proudly alongside stacks of legal files, Mr Khan asks detailed questions about why our covert reporter, posing as an illegal immigrant from India, came to Britain.

‘What was the problem you were facing back home? Political?’ probed the solicitor, who has been practising since 2009 and now has two branches for his firm.

‘No, not political. Just work. I needed a job,’ our reporter replied.

Mr Khan whispered his response. ‘You say that and they’re going to send you back.’

Over the following half hour, Mr Khan agreed to help file an asylum claim to the Home Office for a cost of £4,000.

He asked our reporters – one posing as the illegal migrant, the other as his UK-based uncle – to write down the reasons why he was no longer safe in India, only minutes after he was informed that there were none.

‘You write one page and bring it to me. I’ll turn it into four pages,’ Mr Khan said. At one point, he tells our reporter to ‘make up something’ for the immigration authorities. While Mr Khan appears to be cautious at times, on one occasion telling our covert reporter he can’t help him apply for asylum if he doesn’t say ‘his life is in danger back home’, the solicitor still tells him to lie to the Home Office.

Speaking discreetly in Punjabi, Mr Khan says: ‘Just write why he’s come here illegally. Like, he’s taken a loan from someone, who that party is. See, everyone who enters illegally has a reason. Some political reason. Some fight with someone. He’ll have to write these things to make up some story. If he doesn’t say anything, he will get nothing.’

Our reporter later tried to clarify what he should write down, asking: ‘A political problem?’ Mr Khan responded: ‘Political, yes. Anything, just take name of a party.’

The solicitor said he would appeal if the case was rejected and take the fight to court, adding: ‘I’ve dealt with many people like him.’

Approached by the Mail, Mr Khan denied that he or his firm offered to help an illegal immigrant submit fabricated asylum claim to the Home Office. He said: ‘We are always advising people according to their circumstances, under immigration rules and outside immigration rules (human rights). I always act with integrity, honesty – according to my code of conduct.’

He said the £4,000 cost he quoted the undercover reporters included extensive fees to the Home Office and other authorities, and his charge was only £1,000 of this amount.

£5,500 in cash for a pack of lies

Malik Nazar Hayat boasts his Lincoln Lawrence solicitors’ firm is ‘among the leading immigration lawyers in London.’

On his Linked In page, he says: ‘We are experts in UK immigration law and advise on all UK immigration-related matters.’

When the Mail visited his offices in Hounslow, west London, asking for his expertise, Mr Hayat quickly got down to business.

Decked out in a sharp suit and chunky silver watch, he relaxed into his chair as he fired a series of questions at our reporter posing as an economic migrant. Where is he from in India? Does he have any debts or enemies? Any political affiliations? Has he ever been arrested? ‘No, no, he’s a man of good character. Not political,’ our second reporter, posing as his uncle, responded.

‘But we don’t need a good character. For asylum, if he’s a good character, they’ll ask him to go back. They will not accept his claim,’ Mr Hayat said.

Later, he added: ‘Obviously, he’s a good person. If he wants to stay here, he must have fear of prosecution back home, fear of assassination, anything like that, and the Punjab. India is not a safe country for him. So I’m going on that way.’

The solicitor suggests telling Home Office officials he’s a sympathiser with a separatist movement in India and ‘the police are after him, the security agencies are after him’.

Unprompted, Mr Hayat added: ‘On top of that, he is a victim of human trafficking because he contacted some agent, gave him some money, the agent promised him a job and visa, and now the agent has disappeared. He is a victim of human trafficking, and secondly, he fears persecution and assassination.’

The whole process will cost £5,500 in cash, the lawyer says, a price he insists is a steal from his usual fees of £12,000 to £15,000 for similar cases. As the reporters prepared to leave, Mr Hayat told them Home Secretary Suella Braverman was ‘dumb’ and ‘doesn’t know anything’. Lincoln Lawrence said that it took the allegations very seriously and was investigating.

Mr Hayat was happy to falsely submit a photo of another man who looked like the undercover reporter at anti-government protests to support the asylum claim.