JAMAICAN mum Yolande O'Connor has been jailed for 12 months after living illegally in the UK for ten years.
The 38-year-old had a forged Home Office stamp in her passport, Gloucester Crown Court heard.
O'Connor, of Hillfield Court Road, Gloucester, wept as she was convicted of possessing an identity document with improper intention.
She will be deported at the end of her sentence.
She had denied the charge, saying she did not know that the stamp was false.
She claimed she had paid a lawyer in Brixton, London, to apply to the Home Office for leave to stay and she believed it was all above board.
At the start of the trial the judge, Recorder Robin Belben, warned the jury not to let their own views about immigration affect their verdict.
"People do have strong opinions on this sort of thing and it is a politically controversial subject so it is essential that you consider the case on the evidence alone," he said.
Christopher Smythe, prosecuting, said O'Connor entered the UK in December 2001 as a visitor with leave to stay a month. Several extensions were granted giving her leave to stay until 2003.
Home Office records showed that no further applications were submitted by O'Connor – and it was assumed she had left the country.
But on January 8 2011, O'Connor made an application for naturalisation as a British citizen.
"She submitted her Jamaican passport, which was looked at carefully. It was discpvered that on page 13 there was a stamp dated October 30 2003 which gave her indefinite leave to remain. It was false," said Mr Smythe.
O'Connor, who worked in a care home, maintained that she believed it was genuine.
But the jury found her guilty and Recorder Belben told her that she had no right to be in this country even though her mother, grandmother and her own daughter live here legitimately.
"You will have to go back to Jamaica because those are the rules," he said. "On a personal level, one can sympathise with your wish to remain here with your family but the courts have to take a serious view of people who break the rules with a view to staying unlawfully in this country."
