THREE people have been jailed for a total of 18-and-a-half-years for setting up bogus colleges to help illegal immigrants stay in the UK.

Tiamiyu Bello, 75, and his 67-year-old wife Christiana, of New Cross Road, New Cross, were found guilty of conspiring to assist unlawful immigration and conspiracy to possess articles for use in fraud.

Registered to their address was the Academic College of Education and the Academic College of Training and Recruitment, but officers discovered the building was a collection of bedsits with no evidence of lessons being taught there.

They were both sentenced to five years in prison at Croydon Crown Court.

Solicitor Adeyinka Adeniran, 39, from Camberwell, was also found guilty of conspiring to assist unlawful immigration and was sentenced to eight-and-a-half-years in jail.