A family who ran a fake passport factory in an east end basment have been locked up.

The gang recived heavy sentences for their part in a "substantial and highly efficient" forgery operation involving hundreds of blank passports and dodgy utility bills.

Illegal immigrants Vanessa Silva Moreira Uehara, 23, her husband Rodrigo Uehara Dias, 25, Auretiano Nunes Moreira, 59, Holanda Moreira Silva, 21, and Wyllkynstom Kleller Cabral Correa, 24, all from Windsor Road, Leyton, east London, each pleaded guilty at Southwark Crown Court to at least one count relating to the forgery of passports, driving licences and national insurance cards.

Ringleader Mr Correa was described as "the principle offender and, in fact, the manager of the others involved and this was in effect his operation being run". He recived five-and-a-half years.

Hundreds of blank passports

When police finally raided their home in May last year, they uncovered a mechanised identity fraud factory.

Officers found a stash of forged documents which included 60 blank Spanish passports, 150 Portuguese passports, 32 Italian passports, 200 blank Portuguese identity cards, 150 UK national insurance cards, £1,400 in cash and a variety of forged utility bills.

The basement was divided into a small-scale factory with three workstations incorporating scanners, computers, printers and an embossing press for stamping metallic insignias on passports. From here the gang was capable of producing various different EU identity documents.

Prosecuters reckon the scam had been on the go since late 2007.

Other sentences

Mr Dias, the brother-in-law of Mr Correa, a low level player, was sentenced to three years in prison.

Mr Nunes Moreira, their father-in-law, had arrived in London illegally looking for work and, without the correct papers, forged a water bill with Mr Correa's help. He also held a false Portuguese passport, relating to count three on the indictment, and for these two counts he received a 20-month prison sentence.

Mr Nunes Moreira's daughters both pleaded guilty to counts four and five of using false identification documents with intent - both carried false UK National Insurance cards - and received 12-month sentences.

The charges were possession of apparatus for making false identity documents, possession of false identity documents with intent and using a false instrument with intent.