Attorney general's illegal cleaner 'was paid £95,000 for her story'

An illegal immigrant accused of tricking the attorney general into employing her as a housekeeper was paid £95,000 for her story by a newspaper, a court heard yesterday. Loloahi Tapui, 27, admitted giving Baronness Scotland several documents, including her CV and payslips, aimed at showing she was entitled to work in the UK, when in reality her application to remain had been turned down four years earlier. But she denies deliberately defrauding Scotland, and insisted the minister never asked her about her immigration status. Tapui, who was employed for nine months by Scotland in 2009, said she was paid £95,000 for her story by the Mail on Sunday, with £19,000 commission going to Max Clifford, the celebrity publicist. She insisted that she had not shown her passport or any letter from the Home Office to Scotland but admitted she took her CV, which listed a number of previous jobs in the UK. During cross-examination, Judge Nicholas Loraine-Smith asked Tapui: "You took the documents you had along so that you could show her that you were lawfully in the country and you were entitled to work?" Tapui, a Tongan national, said: "That's correct." But when asked by Duncan Penny, prosecuting, whether she agreed that, if Scotland believed those documents entitled her to work in the UK, then the minister would have been misled, Tapui said: "No." Asked why the minister would have wanted to see her marriage certificate if she had no interest in Tapui's immigration status, the defendant said: "I've no idea." Despite admitting that the documents were intended to show she was entitled to work, Tapui added: "I didn't say that I've got the right to work in the country. She never asked me [about] my status or my legality to work in the country. There was no conversation about immigration status and my right to work in the UK." Earlier, Scotland, who was referred to by her married name of Patricia Mawhinney, told Southwark crown court that she had questioned Tapui over her immigration status, that Tapui had shown her a passport and that when her illegal status had been exposed, her former cleaner admitted lying. Tapui admits possessing a passport with a counterfeit visa stamp between June 7 2006 and September 19 2009, but denies using it to establish facts about herself and earn money. She said she had got the fake stamp from an unnamed friend of a former Russian housemate called Alex, whom she had paid £180 in cash. Christopher Hehir, defending Tapui, said his client was not "in it for the money" as she had turned down Scotland's offer to pay her £8 an hour and had accepted £6 an hour instead. "You may think this case was a powerful illustration of what can happen when two very different worlds collide," he said. But he added that the result was "not fortunate for either party". Lady Scotland suffered "personal and political embarrassment" and Tapui found herself in the dock.