Surat: Police on Tuesday claimed to have busted a fake visa scam by arresting an engineer from Surat who allegedly provided fake visa stickers of the UK, Canada, and other European countries to Delhi-based travel agents.

These meticulously-designed stickers were used by travel agents to dupe customers by claiming that their applications had been approved and visas delivered, according to a release issued by the Surat Police.

The accused, Pratik aka Abhijeet Shah, is a habitual offender facing 12 cases related to visa and passport fraud. Special Operations Group (SOG) personnel found an elaborate setup Shah had created to design and print real-looking visas after raiding his flat in Rander area.

Police recovered a laptop, printer, cutting machine, five fake visas, a UV laser torch, an emboss machine, and over 500 pieces of blank papers with watermarks of the UK, Canada, Serbia, Macedonia, and other European nations. Shah had imported these papers via Alibaba.com to create the impression of genuine visas, said Deputy Commissioner of Police, SOG, Rajdeepsinh Nakum.

"Shah holds a Diploma in Electrical Engineering and knows how to design software like CorelDRAW. He was in contact with travel agents in Delhi involved in illegal immigration. When agents couldn't secure a valid visa for their client, they contacted Shah to create a fake visa," Nakum said.

Shah charged Rs 15,000 per fake document and admitted to creating and delivering nearly 700 such visas over ten years.

"The sticker used to give the impression of a genuine visa. The visa holder would realise that he was cheated after landing in the country of travel," the officer said.

Police have sought information from Indian embassies in some countries to determine the number of travellers stopped for holding fake visas.