News
By Eniola Daniel
01 April 2025 | 2:20 am
A Nigerian medical doctor, Kelvin Alaneme, who is linked to an immigration scam andexploitation of vulnerable citizens, says he is helping Nigerians. Alaneme, the author ofNothing Spoil, allegedly defrauded people via his agency CareerEdu.
• Undercover reporter reveals scammers’modus operandi
A Nigerian medical doctor, Kelvin Alaneme, who is linked to an immigration scam andexploitation of vulnerable citizens, says he is helping Nigerians. Alaneme, the author ofNothing Spoil, allegedly defrauded people via his agency CareerEdu. ABritish Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)‘Africa Eye’probe reported that he charged $13,000 for fake visas to United Kingdom (UK) care jobs.
BBC, in a secret visual recording, revealed the antics of UK immigration scammers.
Reports of immigration scams havesurgedsince a government visa scheme originally designed to let foreign medical professionals work in the UKwas broadened in 2022 to include care workers.
To apply for the HealthandCare Worker visa, candidates must first obtain a Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS) from a UK employer who is licensed by the Home Office. The need for the CoS document became a money-spinner forfraudulentrelocation agents.
More than 470 licences in the UK care sector were revoked by the government between July 2022 and December 2024. Those licensed sponsors were responsible for the recruitment of more than 39,000 medical professionals and care workers from October 2020.
The BBC’sinvestigation followeda series of online complaints about the relocation services of Alaneme, who claimedto be providing job opportunities, some of whichdonot exist, for young Africans.
In a secret shot by theBBC, Alaneme,believing the BBC undercover journalist to be a well-connected potential business partner in the UK care sector,attempted to recruit her as an agent for his business, promising financial returns. He told the journalist, “Just get me care homes. I can make you a millionaire.”
Detailing how the complex scheme works, Alaneme revealed that he would pay £2,000 ($2,600) for each care home vacancy shecould get, with an additional £500 ($650) commission. These vacancies would then be sold to candidates back in Nigeria.
TheBBCclaimed that itsinvestigation found that Efficiency for Care employed,on average,16 people in 2022, and 152 in 2023. Yet a letter sent from the Home Office to the company, dated May 2023 – and seen by theBBC– showed it had issued 1,234 CoS to foreign workers between March 2022 and May 2023.
Efficiency for Care’s sponsorship licence was revoked in July 2023. The care company can no longer recruit from abroad but continues to operate.
In another secretly filmed meeting, Alaneme shared another part of the scam, which involved providing migrants witha CoS for non-existent jobs. He also told the undercover reporter how a fake payroll system in the care homes could be used to mask the fact that the jobs are not real.
Praise,in his mid-30s,claimed to beone of those who paid Alaneme more than £10,000 ($13,000) for a job in the UK. He says he was told he would be working with a care company called Efficiency for Care, based in Clacton-on-Sea. It was only when he arrived that he realised the job didn’t exist.
Responding to the report, Alaneme said, “I have never scammed or defrauded anyone in my life, and I never will. Since we began in 2020, CareerEdu has helped over 5,000 Nigerians relocate, not just to the UK but to other countries. We have services in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Oman and the United States.
“We are not care job employers in the UK. We have always made this clear. Our job is to link qualified employees to legitimate and licensed employers and recruiters who provide CoS, which we have always said is free. That said, some recruiters and employers charge extra costs. These costs can cover training, transportation and even accommodation and vary from employer to employer. We communicate this clearly to the clients, and if these clients are not successful, they get a full refund of these extra costs, no questions asked.”
Those who claim to know Alaneme say his reputation cannot be linked to such a mess.Ina post onX, one Tony Chuma said, “This guy is my classmate back in high school. He’s very brilliant and one of the most intelligent students. He was very religious and without any stain. Saying he’s a scammer is very alien; he’s too good for that. I believe BBC did not get its facts right.”
In this article
- Kelvin Alaneme
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