Diloram Aliakbarova (40) had paid £600 for the fake Lithuanian passport in a bid to get work in the UK.

But staff spotted the passport was false and contacted the authorities, Peterborough Crown Court was told.

Immigration officers went to her home in Cromwell Road, Millfield, Peterborough, and discovered her real passport.

The Uzbekistan national told officers she had been a doctor in her homeland, and had been forced to help in rigging a presidential election in 2000.

She said she had been forced to flee the country afterwards and arrived in the UK in 2006.

However, she said she had not applied for asylum because she did not want to be tracked down.

Aliakbarova, who pleaded guilty to possessing identity documents with intent, sobbed as Judge Nicholas Coleman jailed her for nine months.

He told her: “This court has many cases of this sort because a passport office is in this city.

“It should be firmly understood that those who seek to obtain false documents and use false documents – particularly passports – will go to prison, without a shadow of a doubt.”