FOREIGN students have been blackmailed out of thousands of pounds by a man pretending to work for the immigration authorities, police say.

An appeal was broadcast on BBC’s Crimewatch show this morning searching for a man suspected of threatening students with deportation if they did not pay him.

He is believed to have extorted £1500 from one Pakistani student and £9,000 from another student, neither of whom were committing immigration offences, and it is feared he may have more victims.

Described as an Asian man in his twenties, the suspect is said to have taken a first £450 from the Pakistani student at a meeting in November last year, outside the UK Border Agency's office Lunar House, in Croydon.

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