Four years for identity thief who forced woman into bigamous marriage

Julie Stead, 28, was forced into marrying her Gambian boyfriend while holidaying in the country, under threat of being left stranded there.

Ms Stead, a carer from Bridlington, said she was taken to a white building in the city of Banjul where she was told by boyfriend Ahmed Jobe's family that the two of them must marry – or she would be stranded with no money or passport.

The reluctant bride, who had met Jobe in a nightclub five months earlier, in May 2006, said: 'I didn't know what to say. I just froze.

"He told me if I didn't he was going to leave me there. I didn't see anyway out because he had my passport and I didn't know where I was.

"I felt completely isolated, I didn't know what to do, he knew that I didn't have anywhere to go in Gambia and that I didn't know anyone or could speak to language. I was stuck."

Keeping a possessive hold over Ms Stead, the newlyweds returned to England a few weeks later.

Ms Stead said: "I just couldn't believe what had happened to me, I was so ashamed I had been conned and frightened I didn't tell anyone about the marriage, none of my friends or my family."

The couple continued to live together at Jobe's Wakefield home but slept in separate bedrooms and barely spoke, while Ms Stead looked for a way out of the unhappy union.

Finally, in June 2007, Ms Stead, who is still legally married, found the courage to leave Jobe, who tracked her down and tried to force her back several times, and is now still fighting to get a divorce.

It wasn't until legal proceedings were launched against Jobe that Ms Stead found out he had already been married.

Ms Stead was informed that Jobe, 31, also known as Ahmed 'Sheikh' Jobe and Carl Davies, had used his various aliases not only to fool her but also banks, immigration officials, police and the courts.

During a trial at Leeds Crown Court last week, it was revealed that the conman, who originally entered the UK as a student, overstayed in the UK after his student visa expired in 2001 - racked up a 54,950 pound mortgage, as well as motoring convictions and a police caution, all in the name of Carl Davies.

He had assumed the identity of Mr Davies after grafting his photo onto the man's stolen passport, and used the false document to apply for genuine paperwork.

Despite marrying the Gambian mother of his daughter in England in 2003, Jobe had then forced Ms Stead into their sham marriage.

Sentencing the duplicitous identity thief today to four years and three months inprison Judge Jennifer Kershaw QC said: "This defendant entered the UK as a student and extended his stay.

"He subsequently received and then used a stolen passport which he then falsified. He used it to obtain driving documents, open a bank account and obtain a mortgage.

"He then participated in court proceedings in respect of careless driving. Finally he induced a woman who was a UK national to marry him in the Gambia, falsifying her passport to the authorities in order to facilitate that.

"That marriage was bigamous. Subsequently, when the marriage failed, he lied to the UK authorities in order to obtain indefinite leave to remain. This was designed to maintain a false identity and to remain in the UK unlawfully."