Sponsored by
Watch as immigration police swoop on ‘sham’ wedding at Leeds town hall
Vicars and registrars across Yorkshire are being trained to help combat organised crime by spotting sham marriages, police have revealed, after a bogus ceremony was dramatically halted at one of the region’s most popular wedding venues.
About a dozen officers raided Leeds Town Hall yesterday and arrested a Slovak bride and Pakistani groom moments before they were due to exchange vows.
The couple were led away in handcuffs along with five other members of the wedding party as part of a major investigation into bogus services arranged to keep illegal immigrants in the UK.
It is understood the officers, including staff from the UK Border Agency (UKBA), were acting on a tip-off from Leeds register office staff who thought the couple had hardly met before their “big day”.
The UKBA’s regional director for Yorkshire, Jeremy Oppenheim, said it was giving Church of England vicars, diocesan officials and registrars informal advice on how to detect a sham marriage.
Recent cases have included a groom wearing a cheap suit with the price tag still attached, a bride who came down the aisle in leggings and a couple who needed an interpreter to exchange vows.
But Mr Oppenheim said officials at wedding venues could not rely on looks alone to identify criminals.
“People might turn up in jeans and tracksuits, but we aren’t going to make a judgment on that basis alone,” he added. “We make a judgment based on what we think an individual’s aspiration is, and whether we think that person is marrying for reasons other than love.
“We would expect registrars to look very seriously at the nature of the relationship between the two people.
“There is an expectation that registrars have some contact with the individuals before the day itself and certainly vicars have quite a lot of contact with the people they are due to marry.”
A sham marriage typically occurs when a non-European person marries someone from an EU country to gain long-term residency and the right to gain work and claim benefits in this country.
Foreign gangsters are understood to be charging up to £10,000 per marriage to provide grooms and brides for people desperate to stay in the UK.
Since last summer 155 people have been arrested in connection with suspected bogus ceremonies, including 27 in Sheffield and 12 in Rotherham.
Mr Oppenheim said many of the cases investigated by Yorkshire officers were associated with criminal networks, including some with links to the legal profession.
“There is no question that the amounts of money that have been through the system are huge and we have in the past, across the region and beyond, seen a lot of involvement with people making a lot of money.
“We are determined to not just deal with the individuals but to deal with the people behind them who offer this process of immigration.
“This operation was very effective, with seven people arrested, and I think we have really dealt a blow to people who think they can use marriage as a means of gaining entry to the UK.”
The 22-year-old bride was one of three Slovak women arrested at yesterday’s service. The others were aged 22 and 32.
The 23-year-old groom, who is believed to have been living in the UK illegally on an expired student visa, was detained along with three other Pakistani men, aged 21, 23 and 32.
Acting Detective Inspector Pete Gallagher said: “We suspect that the sole purpose of this marriage would have been for the groom to avoid immigration controls and stay in the UK.”
Email to a friend
Print this page- Leeds lose Ward to Palace: Is there anyone they can afford now?
- Sheffield Wednesday leaving it late to hijack Leeds United over Ward
- As Snodgrass dithers over Leeds, Warnock throws a lifeline
- Ball is in Leeds United’s court over contract - Snodgrass
- Police turning blind eye to Asian voter fraud, says MP
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Yorkshire
Saturday 26 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 8 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 9 C to 22 C
Wind Speed: 13 mph
Wind direction: East
Comments
There are 1 comments to this article
Page 1 of 1
forwhatitsworth
Tuesday, March 29, 2011 at 03:19 PMAnother example where EHR legislation is in conflict with commonsense, morality and ethics. The law in the UK has been tightened-up to stop this criminal practice but it appears that yet again, European Court rulingscase law will make it more difficult for the Authorities. Registrars in particular, in determining whether or not they are empowered under the current legislation to halt these shams have quite a difficult task BUT, where there is obvious and flagrant conduct to indicate criminal activity, then they should always stop the ceremony and bring in the authorities. Stricter guidelines for the benefit of registrarsvicars and overall, a change in the law and some imaginative law making, so as to determine and punish the truly sham and criminal ceremonies and their participants, is necessary. It appears that the data shows that young, vulnerable women from the old Soviet Block countries(now members of and within the free travel movement area of the EEC. An example is Latvia, where there is a real problem over the targetting of such young women and their government is pressing Western European countries to tighten the law over marriages), are the main group targetted with financial bribes and to them, massive pay-days. The main recipients, are males from the Islamic regions of Asia. In this regard, maybe the Imams from the EEC region - as this is an EEC wide problem -(and they may already be doing this), could preach and advise to their religious followers, that such conduct is against their beliefs and their views over the sanctity of marriage and any knowledge of such organised crime should be reported.
Page 1 of 1
Your view
Please sign in to be able to comment on this story.