Recovering money from fraudulent immigration adviser

Overview

Yes, recovering money paid to a fake immigration adviser or a fraudulent CAS agent is often possible, but the realistic prospects and the best route depend on who you paid, whether they were regulated, what you can prove, and whether the person or business still has traceable money or assets. In practice you usually have several overlapping options: regulatory complaint and refund orders, a civil money claim, bank or card chargeback and fraud recovery, and reporting the matter as a crime. These are not mutually exclusive and it is often sensible to pursue more than one at the same time.

Two different situations are worth separating at the outset, because the “fake immigration adviser” problem and the “fake CAS agent” problem raise slightly different issues.

Fake or unregulated immigration advisers

In England and Wales it is a criminal offence to provide immigration advice or immigration services unless the person is regulated by the Immigration Advice Authority (IAA, formerly the OISC) or is otherwise a qualified and authorised person, such as a solicitor regulated by the SRA or a barrister. Someone who takes your money while pretending to be a regulated adviser, or who was never entitled to give paid immigration advice at all, is acting unlawfully and may also be committing fraud.

There are two possibilities:

1. The person was actually regulated (by the IAA or another approved regulator) but did a poor job or overcharged. In that case you complain to the relevant regulator, which can order a refund of fees and compensation.

2. The person was never regulated and was simply pretending. You should report them to the IAA, which enforces against unregulated advice, and this can feed into refund and compensation outcomes as well as enforcement.

A significant recent change strengthens the refund route. Under the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act 2025, the complaints scheme and the courts have express power, where a complaint is upheld, to order a person who provided immigration advice or services to refund all or part of the fees charged and to pay compensation for loss, inconvenience or distress, up to a total of £250,000. Importantly, this power now expressly extends to a person who was not an authorised or regulated adviser at the time. On the application of the affected person or the Commissioner, a court in England and Wales (the High Court or the county court) can order that the sum is recoverable as if it were payable under a court order, and in some cases the Commissioner can recover the money on your behalf with your consent. This is a meaningful route because it is designed precisely for the situation where an unregulated or fake adviser has taken money.

Fake CAS agents

A Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies (CAS) can only be issued by a genuine student sponsor, that is a licensed education provider on the Home Office register of student sponsors. A CAS is generated directly by the licensed institution through the sponsorship management system; it is not something a private “agent” can lawfully sell as a standalone product. If someone charged you a fee promising to supply a CAS, and either produced nothing, produced a fake or invalid CAS, or simply disappeared, that is a strong indicator of fraud rather than a genuine service.

The key practical distinction is between:

A genuine recruitment or education agent working for, or on behalf of, a licensed sponsor, where you paid a legitimate service or application fee. Here your remedy is contractual and you may also be able to escalate to the institution itself.

A person with no connection to any licensed sponsor who took money for a CAS they could never lawfully provide. Here you are almost certainly the victim of fraud, and your realistic recovery depends heavily on tracing the money and the payment method you used.

Before assuming fraud, check the Home Office register of licensed student sponsors to confirm whether the institution named exists and is licensed, and check directly with that institution whether the “agent” was authorised to act for it and whether any CAS was genuinely assigned to you. Sometimes what looks like a scam is a genuine but incompetent or delayed process, and that difference changes whether you are pursuing a fraud claim or a straightforward contractual refund.

Civil recovery: getting your money back through the courts

Regardless of the criminal or regulatory position, you may have a straightforward civil claim to recover the money. The likely legal bases are breach of contract (they agreed to provide a service and did not), misrepresentation or deceit (they induced payment by a false statement), and unjust enrichment or restitution (they received money for a consideration that wholly failed).

For most such sums the practical route is a claim in the county court, using the online Money Claim service. Claims are handled on the small claims track up to £10,000, which keeps costs and complexity low, and on the fast or intermediate track above that. Court fees are payable but are recoverable if you win, and fee remission may be available if you are on a low income or certain benefits.

The central difficulty is usually not liability but enforcement and identification. You need to know who you actually contracted with, ideally a real name and a current address, or a company with assets. A judgment against an untraceable individual, a false name, or a person who has left the country is often worth little in practice. So before issuing a claim, focus on identifying and locating the defendant and assessing whether they have money or assets that could realistically satisfy a judgment.

Bank and card recovery

How you paid strongly affects your prospects.

If you paid by credit card and the amount was over £100 and up to £30,000, section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 may make the card provider jointly liable for misrepresentation or breach of contract, allowing you to claim directly from the card company. This is one of the strongest routes where it applies.

If you paid by debit card or credit card, you may also be able to request a chargeback through your bank under the card scheme rules. Chargeback is not a legal right but is often effective if you act promptly, so contact your bank quickly.

If you paid by bank transfer and have been the victim of an authorised push payment scam, UK banks are now subject to a mandatory reimbursement scheme for many such scams, overseen by the Payment Systems Regulator, and you should report the matter to your bank without delay and ask specifically about reimbursement. If the bank rejects your claim, you can escalate to the Financial Ombudsman Service, which is free.

Speed matters for all of these routes, so contact your bank or card provider as soon as you realise something is wrong.

Reporting the fraud

If the facts point to a scam rather than a poor service, report it. Fraud in England and Wales is reported to Action Fraud, the national reporting centre, which can pass the matter to the police. Reporting will not by itself get your money back, but it creates an official record, may support a chargeback or bank reimbursement claim, and in some cases leads to a criminal prosecution and a compensation order against the offender. You should also report an unregulated immigration adviser to the IAA, which investigates and can take enforcement action and, as noted above, feed into refund and compensation orders. Where a fake CAS or a fake sponsor is involved, the Home Office also has an interest and the affected education provider should be told, since its identity may be being misused.

Evidence to gather now

Whatever route you choose, the strength of your position depends on documentation. Try to assemble:

1. All written communications, including messages, emails, WhatsApp, social media exchanges and any website or advertisement you responded to.

2. Proof of every payment, with dates, amounts, the payee name and the method used.

3. Any contract, receipt, invoice or written promise about what you would receive.

4. Whatever the person told you about who they were, including any claimed regulation, registration number, company name or connection to a named institution.

5. The document they actually produced, if any, such as a purported CAS, so its authenticity can be checked with the named institution and the Home Office.

How the different facts change the outcome

Your prospects turn on several points that are not yet clear from your question. If the adviser or agent was genuinely regulated or genuinely acting for a licensed sponsor, this is largely a contractual dispute and refund complaint, which is comparatively straightforward. If they were a fake using a false identity and untraceable payment channels, liability is easy to establish in principle but recovery is hard, and your best realistic chance is often the bank or card route combined with a fraud report, rather than a court judgment you cannot enforce. If you paid a real, identifiable person or UK company with assets, a civil money claim becomes much more attractive. And if a fake CAS was produced, checking it against the named institution is essential both to prove the fraud and to protect you from acting on an invalid document in any immigration application.

Suggested order of action

1. Preserve all evidence immediately and stop any further payments.

2. Contact your bank or card provider straight away about chargeback, section 75, or authorised push payment reimbursement, since these are time sensitive.

3. Verify the facts: check the named institution on the Home Office register of student sponsors and confirm directly with it whether the agent and any CAS were genuine, and check whether the adviser was ever regulated by the IAA.

4. Report the matter to Action Fraud and, for an unregulated immigration adviser, to the IAA, keeping the reference numbers.

5. If you can identify and locate a solvent individual or company, send a clear written demand for repayment giving a short deadline, then bring a county court money claim if they do not repay.

6. If a bank or card claim is refused, escalate free of charge to the Financial Ombudsman Service.

If you tell me how you paid, who you think you were dealing with, roughly how much is involved, and whether the person was described as regulated or connected to a named college, I can give you a more targeted view of which of these routes is most likely to get your money back.