THE TELEGRAPH: A vicar conducted hundreds of sham marriages to help illegal immigrants gain residency in Britain over a four-year period, a court heard.
The Rev Alex Brown, 61, and co-defendants Michael Adelasoye, 50, and Vladymyr Buchak, 33, are accused of preying on Eastern Europeans desperate for money and Africans who were willing to do anything to stay in the country in a ''massive and cynical scam''.
Between July 2005 and July 2009, Brown presided over a total of 383 marriages at the Church of St Peter and St Paul in St Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex, a 30-fold increase compared to the 13 he had conducted over the previous four years.
The three men went on trial at Lewes Crown Court yesterday charged with conspiring to facilitate the commission of breaches of immigration laws.
Opening the case, prosecutor David Walbank told jurors the three paid money to nationals from EU member states such as Switzerland [sic], Iceland [sic] and Norway [sic].
In return for the money they were expected to wed African nationals, mainly Nigerian, in order for them to become permanent residents in Britain.
''This case involves a massive and systematic immigration fraud," said Mr Walbank.
The court heard how Buchak, a Ukrainian national who had himself been living illegally in the country since at least 2004, was responsible for ''cajoling and persuading'' the Eastern Europeans into the marriages of convenience. >>> | Friday, June 11, 2010
