He had been a bright boy who had progressed well at school and qualified as a solicitor without difficulty, specialising in immigration law after doing his articles at a solicitors firm in Plaistow. His mentor was a clever and cunning man who made good money progressing applications to the Home Office with no regard for the client. ‘I mean, who are they going to complain to when they get deported?’ the man would laugh.

The business model was simple: start the client’s fees at a low level, then increase them as the applications progressed. Make applications that were doomed to failure, safe in the knowledge that the client’s money would be in his pocket before they got deported. He had cared little for any of his clients, viewing them as rats to be exploited. Adebayo had learnt well from his mentor. There was money to be made in their business; you just needed the desperate clients to come through the door.

He had started Adebayo Associates seven years previously and was immediately successful after advertising heavily on local Urdu radio stations and in the mosques. He promised success in Home Office applications at rock-bottom prices, and the clients descended in droves. He had no associates; he was the only lawyer. The rest were caseworkers paid minimally and treated with disdain. The applications were simple, and he quickly realised he could charge hundreds of pounds simply for form-filling. Soon he was making more money than he knew what to do with, and each morning the queue stretched out the front door and his reception area was always full.

His brother, Emmanuel, had not had such an easy childhood. He was a much rougher boy, always in fights, always bullying, cajoling and stealing, leading to trouble with the police a few times. Adebayo had always found it easy to manipulate Emmanuel, who in turn just wanted to please his older sibling. The benefit of this was that the bigger boy always protected his brother, keeping any bullies away.

Things hadn’t changed all those years later. Adebayo kept Emmanuel happy with cash and his brother repaid him by keeping him safe. Emmanuel’s links to the underworld were useful; Adebayo didn’t like dealing with criminals—he didn’t trust them—but he appreciated the need to sometimes get things done by less conventional means. He needed a good proportion of his clients to be successful to keep the business going, so forged documents were sometimes needed. Emmanuel was his link into this world: he could call on good forgers of identity documents, supporting paperwork and passports, all with one phone call.