Hussein Ali, 33, was banned from employment in the UK, but got a position at a care home near Leamington after Hussein Mohammed attended an interview with an agency.

In return "hard-working" Ali had to give £1,770 of the £3,770 he earned between May last year and January. He pleaded guilty to fraud and was given a 12-month community order with 180 hours of unpaid work.

Passing sentence, Judge Christopher Hodson said: "I am not going to send you to prison. You did what you did to provide for your wife and children, and Mr Mohammed has creamed off the bulk of the money.

"You are a thoroughly decent person, there is no doubt of that. But what you did was criminal and it must be punished."

He added: "I am not going to make a recommendation of deportation. I will leave that decision up to the immigration authorities."

Prosecutor Kate Iliffe said that in May last year a man named Hussein Mohammed applied for a job with Phoenix Employment Services.

He turned up for the interview with a Kenyan passport in that name and another passport-sized photograph of Ali – and was taken on to work at old people's homes.

But the job was actually taken up by Ali, who later accepted he had asked Hussein Mohammed to get employment for him.

Ali had arrived in this country from Somalia some time between 2003 and April 2005, when he had applied for asylum and been given an immigration card saying he was prohibited from working in the UK.

Miss Iliffe added he had been served with a notice which meant the judge could recommend deportation.

Robert Hodgkinson, defending, said that during civil unrest in Somalia Ali's mother had been seized by the militia, and he has not seen her since and does not know if she is alive or dead.

As a result his father arranged for him to be brought to this county by two men who then abandoned him.

He was befriended by Hussein Mohammed, but found himself homeless last year.

By then Ali had met his partner Emma, with whom he has twins, and began living with her.

Mohammed helped get the job - but took some of the earnings as they were paid into his bank account.