Border chief in passport fiasco was handed a £15,000 bonus... on top of his £135,000 salary and £1.4million pension pot

Home Top

American mother gunned down in Mali massacre: Aid worker is named as first victim after terrorists slaughtered 27 at hotel favored by Westerners leaving bodies piled up in gore-spattered corridors
EXCLUSIVE - The extreme lengths five young Syrian men went to in bid to enter the US amid ISIS fears: Greek passports forged in Brazil, hopping from country to country and not checking luggage to avoid scrutiny
How $700-a-month ISIS video producers dictate the terrorist group's every action and receive better treatment (any better salaries) than any of their peers
Chris Christie in mystery security scare: His plane returns to the gate, passengers are searched and one man is taken off the flight after 'threatening' the New Jersey governor
Fingerprints now reveal that TWO of the Paris suicide bombers had entered Europe through Greece a month before the attacks
Pro-refugee protests are staged across US amid outrage at Trump for agreeing with 'Nazi-like' plan to make Muslims register
Obama says Mali attack 'stiffens our resolve' as he condemns atrocity and meets refugees on the latest leg of his Asian tour
'We didn't know how close we were to being killed': Revealed, the friends who survived Paris massacre because jihadi's AK-47 ran out of bullets in Mail's incredible video
UN Security Council approves 'all necessary measures' to fight the 'global and unprecedented threat' of ISIS in wake of Paris attacks
'Cowgirl' cousin did NOT blow herself up... but died when third ISIS terrorist detonated suicide vest standing next to her in Paris siege apartment, police reveal
Shadow of a bloody past: For centuries, Islam and Christianity were locked in a brutal conflict most have forgotten. The horror, a top historian argues, is that for jihadis it's as real today as it was in the Middle Ages
Jihadi suspect arrested in Sweden after crossing Arctic Circle on a BICYCLE to sneak into Europe via the backdoor
Thousands of Canadians line the streets to pay tribute to ex-soldier who joined Kurdish militia and died fighting ISIS
'Christmas is a charade': Pope says atrocities such as Paris massacre have made festivities meaningless in a world which has chosen 'war and hate'
'We shouldn't be scared - we are still going out': Defiant Parisians pack the streets of the French capital to honour of those killed exactly one week ago
'This is for Paris': Russian pilots write messages of support for terror victims on their bombs before launching latest air raids and cruise missile strikes against ISIS
Air France plane traveling from Paris to San Francisco performs mystery u-turn over the English Channel and lands back at Charles de Gaulle airport
Flagship Manhattan Apple Store brought to a standstill as man in a mask terrorizes customers with a Samurai sword
CCTV shows massacre mastermind jump barriers and use Metro without a ticket as terror reigned across Paris
Brother of Paris mastermind was arrested in Morocco last month after arriving in his father's hometown and has been held in custody ever since
Newlywed couple let seven frightened strangers fleeing from the Paris terror attacks join them in their honeymoon suite for the night
The puppy who will grow up to be France's next Diesel: Little Dobrynia is donated by Russia as a sign of solidarity to replace hero canine killed by suicide jihadi
Mark Zuckerberg will take two months of paternity leave - six weeks MORE time off than Marissa Mayer took after birth and two months less than he offers his employees
Horrific details emerge in trial of student who 'raped and murdered his teacher' as the jury is shown the stick he 'used to assault her'

60-year-old expected to be sacked without a penny in compensation
Home Secretary reacted with ‘incredulity and fury’ when informed of the unauthorised blunder
Independent inquiry to be conducted by the Chief Inspector of Immigration

By Christopher Leake
Updated: 18:53 EST, 5 November 2011

View
comments

The senior civil servant at the centre of the passport control fiasco received a £15,000 bonus last year on top of his £135,000 annual salary.

Brodie Clark, director of border control for the UK Border and Immigration Agency, was paid the bonus plus other benefits of £2,500 even though the body has been attacked by MPs for numerous failings.

Mr Clark, who also has a pension pot with a cash value of more than £1.4 million, was suspended on Thursday over a major immigration fiasco that may have left Britain open to terrorists and criminals.

Facing the sack: Brodie Clark, pictured with a haul of seized cocaine

He is now expected to be sacked without a penny in compensation.
The 60-year-old former prison governor was ordered out of the Home Office after claims that over the summer immigration officers were told secretly not to bother checking biometric chips on the passports of hundreds of thousands of citizens from outside the EU.

Staff were also instructed not to check their fingerprints or other personal details against a Warnings Index containing the names of terror suspects and illegal immigrants who are denied entry into Britain because they could put the public at risk.

In July, Home Secretary Theresa May and fellow Home Office Ministers agreed to a pilot scheme allowing border officials to operate a ‘risk-based approach’ to a limited number of EU passenger checks.

It meant that EU nationals could have their biometric passports checked ‘upon the discretion of a UK Border Agency official’ instead of automatically.

In addition, European schoolchildren travelling with their families or in groups would not automatically be checked against the Warnings Index, which is used to alert the agency about people who may be of interest.

Probe: Home Secretary Theresa May has ordered an independent inquiry into the passport control fiasco

But it appears that Mr Clark may have extended the relaxation of the checks way beyond the policy laid down by Ministers.

Mrs May is said to have reacted with ‘incredulity and fury’ when informed of the unauthorised blunder. Last night she ordered an independent inquiry to be conducted by the Chief Inspector of Immigration, John Vine.

A senior source said it was clear Ministers had ‘no idea’ until last week that the passport controls had been axed to such an extent.

‘It’s a bit of a mess, but it does look as if any pleas that will be made on Mr Clark’s behalf will be in mitigation and that he will lose his job,’ the source added.

Initially, the Border Agency offered Mr Clark the chance to retire. But Home Office officials intervened and refused to allow him to go in order to prevent him from winning a discretionary payout.

The same is thought to apply to two other senior Border Agency officials suspended at the same time – Graeme Kyle, director of operations at Heathrow, and Carole Upshall, director of the Border Force South and European Operation.

Mr Clark was suspended pending the results of two investigations.
Dave Wood, head of the enforcement and crime group at the UKBA, is carrying out a two-week inquiry aimed at discovering to what extent checks were scaled down and what the security implications might have been.

A second probe by ex-MI6 official Mike Anderson, director general of the strategy, immigration and international group at the Home Office, will investigate wider issues relating to the performance of the agency, which one Home Office source labelled a ‘massive problem’.

Speaking at his £500,000, four-bedroom detached Tudor-style house in Bedford yesterday, Mr Clark said: ‘I can confirm I have been suspended, and there is an investigation going on, and I am co-operating with it. But I am not going to say anything else.’

Concerned: Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has accused the Government of making borders less secure

Senior immigration sources said Mr Clark’s actions may have been motivated by a desperate attempt to handle the huge flow of people entering the UK with decreasing numbers of border staff.

The Border Agency faces cuts among its 5,000 staff, which officials say has increased pressure on workers to cut corners.

Sue Smith, of the Public and Commercial Services Union, said: ‘The travelling public, understandably, want to have a fast and efficient service, and yet we are also under a reduced workforce.’

Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper accused the Government of making borders less secure, and said it needed ‘to get a grip of illegal immigration and border security fast’.

A Home Office statement said: ‘Brodie Clark is alleged to have authorised UKBA officials to abandon biometric checks on non-EEA [European Economic Area] nationals, the verification of the fingerprints of non-EEA nationals and Warnings Index checks on adults at Calais.’

It is understood that in Calais, only Warnings Index checks were dropped. The other checks were allegedly abandoned elsewhere.