‘Brides’ jailed for wedding scam

The “bride”, Matylda Krejci, wore a red and orange diamond-patterned scarf and her “husband” a white and gold turban.

But it all turned out to be a sham and no wedding actually took place – it was part of an audacious immigration scam engineered so Pakistani men could illegally enter the UK.

Two fake “brides” – Krejci, 29, a Czech, and Slovak mother-of-two Eva Holubova, 51 – have each jailed for eight months at Sheffield Crown Court.

It is the first time the UK Border Agency has released photographs of a string of sham marriages which took place in Pakistan during 2010 and 2011.

Nine “brides” were earlier this year jailed for their part in the scam and Krejci and Holubova will now join them in prison.

Holubova and another fake Czech bride, Michaela Lengyelova, 30, who has already been jailed, appeared on more of 
Krejci’s wedding pictures.

The scarf worn by Krejci features in many other photos of the sham ceremonies.

Eagle-eyed officials at the British High Commission in Islamabad rumbled what was going on when they received more than 60 fraudulent visa applications backed by the fake wedding photos.

Krejci’s “bridegroom” claimed he had met her on March 29, 2010, started a relationship the next day and married the same day.

His application to join his spouse in the UK was backed by false documents and the pictures of the wedding ceremony.

But the court heard that both the scarf and the turban were familiar – they appeared on many of the photos submitted with visa applications by Pakistani men.

Holubova, then 48, was supposed to have married a man 20 years her junior.

Again, documents said they met on March 29, hit it off instantly and wed the next day.

The brides were members of an international sham marriage gang based in Rotherham.

Seventeen organisers, facilitators and brides were jailed for a total of 27 years and eight months at the same court in January.

Eastern European and British Asian women were paid to be flown to Islamabad for bogus weddings with Pakistani men who could then apply for visas to live with their spouses in the UK.

Bogus brides were flown from the UK to Pakistan for weddings which took place despite many of the couples not even speaking the same language.

The same people appeared in many of the pictures with brides, bridegrooms and guests swapping the same clothes.

It is thought the photos were taken in different private homes in the Kashmir region.

One 25-year-old Czech woman claimed to have got married three times in four months and another bride was found with £1,000 in her handbag when she returned to the UK.

The ring was smashed by the UK Border Agency who said that by arranging sham weddings in Pakistan rather than the UK, the gang thought they were less likely to be detected.

Some of the “brides” just sponsored false applications while others took part in staged wedding ceremonies with the applicants.

“But they clearly had no intention of living with them in settled and genuine relationships,” said prosecutor Sarah Wright.

“Their marriages were undertaken solely for immigration purposes and were therefore sham marriages.”

Mother-of-three Krejci and Holubova, both from Eastwood, Rotherham, admitted conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration into the UK.

Joe Hingston, for both women, said they arrived in the UK in 2010 and knew the “cynical” plan.

“They simply wanted to come to the UK to better their lives through legal means and hard work,” he said. “Instead their lives had been turned ‘upside down’ for ‘nominal’ benefits.”

Jailing the pair, Judge Rosalind Coe said it was a “very well organised and professional operation”.

Although the “brides” were paid relatively small sums of money, the charges to Pakistani nationals must have been “considerable”.

She told the defendants: “Participation in sham marriages is an abuse of the marriage ceremony itself and an abuse of immigration control.

“Sham marriages strike at the heart of our immigration system.”