Immigration officer sacked for putting wife he didn't like on terror watch list

An immigration officer put his own wife on a terrorist watch list – ­so she could not get home from a trip to Pakistan. The officer was so sick of his partner that when she was visiting family overseas he added her name to the register of people banned from flights into the UK. When she went to the airport to get her return flight back, officials told her she could not board the plane and did not ­explain why.

She called her husband, who ­promised to look into it – but left her stuck in Pakistan for three years. He was sacked after bosses found out about his antics. An immigration source said: “A lot of people may dislike their other halves but to do this takes it to the next level. Needless to say she was confused when she got to the airport as she had never been involved in anything criminal or terrorist related.



“She obviously thought her husband, being an immigration officer, would be able to find out what was going on. Little did she know it was him who had put her on the list. By all accounts he then had the time of his life.” The officer worked with a unit that puts terror and criminal suspects on the watch list of people “not conducive to the public good”. He simply had to log on to a computer database to add his wife as a ­potential suspect.

The officer was caught out when bosses vetted him after he went for a promotion that required him to have a higher level of security clearance. They realised his wife was on the watch list and asked him for an explanation. ­He had no choice but to confess what he had done – and was fired. The immigration source added: “He may have lost his job but he is bit of a legend in immigration circles. It will be talked about for years as the officer who hated his wife so much he put her on a watch list.”