Gay vicar in African marriage scam gets four years

A Church of England vicar was jailed for four years yesterday for his part in Britain's biggest sham marriage fraud to help hundreds of illegal immigrants stay in Britain.

The Reverend Alex Brown, 61, abused his position to marry hundreds of desperate African men to hard-up Eastern European women at his small parish church.

Over a four-year period, the “massive and cynical scam” involved women being paid up to 3,000 to wed to help illegal immigrants gain permanent residency in Britain.

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He presided over 383 marriages at the Church of St Peter and St Paul in St Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex, between July 2005 and July 2009, a 30-fold rise in marriages held over the previous four years.

He was sentenced to four years in jail after being found guilty at Lewes Crown Court in July of conspiring to facilitate the commission of breaches of immigration laws, alongside solicitor Michael Adelasoye, 50, and “recruiter” Vladymyr Buchak, 33.

Judge Richard Hayward also handed Brown a five-month sentence after he pleaded guilty to solemnising a marriage according to the rites of the Church of England without banns being properly read. The two sentences will run concurrently.

Earnings for the church rocketed from 1,000 before the hundreds of marriages occurred, to about 22,000 for the first six months of 2009.

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One bride told how she had to hand back her borrowed wedding dress hours after she had gone through with a ceremony, while one husband-to-be went under the name “Felix Spaceman”.

Through gaining indefinite leave to stay in the UK, the Africans, mainly from Nigeria, would be able to enjoy Britain’s education, healthcare and social benefits systems.

A large proportion of the Africans who went through with the sham marriages had arrived lawfully in the UK, either through the asylum process or by gaining a student visa.

Investigators said it was when they had “reached the end of the line” in their legal applications and appeals to stay in the UK permanently that they went through the sham marriage process.

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Following a seven-week trial at Lewes Crown Court, jurors found Brown guilty of conspiring to facilitate the commission of breaches of immigration laws, along with co-defendants Adelasoye, and Buchak.

The gang were caught following an investigation by the UK Border Agency after caseworkers noticed a surge in immigration applications involving people who had married at the church.

Jurors heard that “recruiter” Buchak, a Ukrainian national who had himself been living illegally in the UK since at least 2004, was responsible for “cajoling and persuading” the Eastern Europeans into the marriages of convenience.

Brown, who is openly gay, insisted he only ever married couples he was sure were getting married for the right reasons and exceptions would only be made if the bride-to-be was imminently expected to give birth.

Buchak and Adelasoye were also sentenced to four years’ imprisonment for the conspiracy charge, while Buchak received a nine month prison sentence for using a false passport, to run concurrently.