A WOMAN who bought a false passport was jailed for attempting to use it at Oxford’s JobCentre.

Malaysian Lim Lihwei, 39, tried to use a Portuguese passport in her own name to register a NI number at the George Street office on June 25.

Jonathan Stone, prosecuting at Oxford Crown Court, said staff inspected the document and noticed a number of flaws.

He said: “The watermark was missing, the laminate safeguards under UV light were found to be incorrect and the custom stitching was wrong.”

Lihwei, of Church Cowley Road, Oxford, was arrested on July 13 when she returned to the JobCentre to check on her application.

Mr Stone said: “In interview, she said she answered an advert in a newspaper and met up with a gentleman who took money and provided the passport.

“She had used it to open a bank account.”

Stephen Bailey, defending, said Lihwei came to Britain in 2001 and worked as a waitress but had been here illegally since June 2008 after her visa ran out.

Judge Julian Hall jailed her on Monday for nine months and left the decision over deportation to the UK Border Agency.