VA353352012 & VA353392012

The appellants are citizens of Pakistan, born respectively on 27 December 1967 and 1 January 1948. They are son and mother. They applied for entry clearance as visitors to see the sponsor, Mr Zafar Mehmood, who is the son of the second appellant and brother of the first appellant. Their applications were refused by the respondent on 9 September 2012.

The appellants appealed against that decision to the First-tier Tribunal, where their appeal was heard on 2 May 2013 by First-tier Tribunal Judge Britton. He dismissed the appellants� appeals in a determination dated 16 May 2013.

On 27 June 2013 permission to appeal against the decision of Judge Britton was granted by the First-tier Tribunal. The main matter which appears to have troubled the granting judge was that the sponsor gave oral evidence, which contradicted certain written statements made by the appellants. The granting judge appeared to think that there was an arguable procedural unfairness in this regard.

On 31 July 2013, Ms Holmes, for the respondent, conceded that there was an error of law in the determination of Judge Britton on this issue. That concession strikes me as generous; nevertheless I see no legitimate reason to go behind it. The position, accordingly, is that I re-make the decision in these appeals. In doing so, however, I have treated Judge Britton�s determination as a record of what was said to him at the hearing. I indicated as much to the parties on 31 July.

The second appellant was a widow living on a pension. The first appellant described himself as an agriculturalist, who also derived an income from hiring out an agricultural vehicle and a car. The first appellant supplied the respondent with various pieces of documentation concerning the vehicles and his land. In particular, documents of July 2012 showed payments in respect of a crop of wheat. There was also evidence showing that the appellant had a wife and four children to support.