OA003972014

The appellant Lawrence Ayeni was born on 10 June 1965 and is a male citizen of Nigeria. On 18 November 2013, the respondent the Entry Clearance Officer Shefo refused the appellant entry clearance to the United Kingdom as a partner of a person present and settled here. The appellant appealed to the First-tier Tribunal (Judge M Davies) which, in a determination promulgated on 8 September 2014, dismissed the appeal. The appellant now appeals, with permission, to the Upper Tribunal.

There are a number of grounds of appeal which are not expressed with any cogency in the documents submitted by the appellant�s solicitor. I was, however, assisted at the hearing by Miss Smith of Counsel and I shall deal with the grounds in the order in which she raised them before me.

�those findings � support the respondent�s contention that the appellant�s behaviour calls into question his character and conduct and as such it makes it undesirable to grant entry clearance. The appellant made two dishonest applications for entry clearance ( sic ) whilst in the United Kingdom and absconded as found by Immigration Judge Lambert is clear evidence in my view that the respondent�s decision was in accordance with the Immigration Rules.�

However, the position is further complicated by the fact that, notwithstanding the judge�s statement at [24], he went on [26] to direct himself to the familiar guidance set out in Razgar [2004] UKHL 27 . Quite why he did so having earlier found that Article 8 was not engaged is not clear. I assume that he did so for reasons of completeness. Having said that, his Article 8 analysis at [26(6)] is brief:

In this appeal there are no exceptional circumstances that engage the Article 8 rights of the appellant, his spouse or her dependant. Even if that were the case no evidence has been produced to show that that would lead to unjustifiable hardship.