Rick Dean
Registered
52
http://amren.com/news/news04/05/04/shamweddings.html
LONDON: On an average, one in 29 civil weddings in the UK is a sham entered into not for love but as a passport to acquire the right to live in the country, a recent survey has indicated.
Registrars are fighting a losing battle against the large number of foreign visitors, many of them illegal immigrants, who pay up to 5,000 pounds for a marriage certificate.
A multi-million-pound black-market wedding industry has sprung up, particularly in London and the Home Counties where one in five is bogus, and registrars still bound by laws
reated more than 165 years ago, can do little to stop it.
The number of sham marriages is estimated at close to 8,500 each year, but some officials believe the real figure could approach 15,000. The
r
fi
ures were revealed in a survey carried out this year b
y the Local Authorities Coordinators of Regulatory Services, which represents registrars and has been lobbying for changes in the law.
Mark Rimmer, a superintendent registrar in Brent, North London, estimates that one in five of all the weddings in his area is a sham, and barely a day goes by without at least one suspect couple arriving at his offices.
One was so blatantly questionable that immigration officers arranged to attend in the hope of arresting the couple, but shortly before the ceremony was to take place, the groom telephoned to cancel.
Of the 11 marriages notified to the Brent register office on that day, three were suspicious enough for officials to alert the Immigration Service.
Either the bride or gro
om of a typical sham couple will be from a European Union country, usually France, Portugal or Spain, and the other from outside the EU, most frequently Africa or Turkey. Sham brides and grooms from B
rit
ain are ra
re because immigration officials can insist the non-Euro
pean partner return to the home country to apply for residency here.
Fixers get round this by finding sham partners from EU nations working in Britain.
Rimmer said that marriage fixers charged 5,000 pounds for each wedding, creaming off 3,000 pounds for themselves and giving 2,000 pounds to the European bride or groom.
With such scams rife, some fixers are estimated to earn more than 100,000 pounds a year and a handful could be making more than 500,000 pounds, the survey stated.
One of the few to be caught is estimated to have earned more than one million pounds annually and had 300 people seeking EU spouses on his books.
Other sham marriages are carried out by individuals offering their services as a
husband or wife and charging up to 3,500 pounds. One woman who arranged a bogus marriage, but pulled out before the ceremony said, " was desperate to stay in England but my visa was about to r
un out.
I met this man w
ho said he would marry me for 3,500 pounds.
The 2,65
2 registrars in England, Wales and Scotland have little difficulty in spotting many of the bogus couples. It has been known for brides to refer to the groom's passport to discover his name or for couples to speak through interpreters.
http://amren.com/news/news04/05/04/shamweddings.html
LONDON: On an average, one in 29 civil weddings in the UK is a sham entered into not for love but as a passport to acquire the right to live in the country, a recent survey has indicated.
Registrars are fighting a losing battle against the large number of foreign visitors, many of them illegal immigrants, who pay up to 5,000 pounds for a marriage certificate.
A multi-million-pound black-market wedding industry has sprung up, particularly in London and the Home Counties where one in five is bogus, and registrars still bound by laws
reated more than 165 years ago, can do little to stop it.
The number of sham marriages is estimated at close to 8,500 each year, but some officials believe the real figure could approach 15,000. The
r
fi
ures were revealed in a survey carried out this year b
y the Local Authorities Coordinators of Regulatory Services, which represents registrars and has been lobbying for changes in the law.
Mark Rimmer, a superintendent registrar in Brent, North London, estimates that one in five of all the weddings in his area is a sham, and barely a day goes by without at least one suspect couple arriving at his offices.
One was so blatantly questionable that immigration officers arranged to attend in the hope of arresting the couple, but shortly before the ceremony was to take place, the groom telephoned to cancel.
Of the 11 marriages notified to the Brent register office on that day, three were suspicious enough for officials to alert the Immigration Service.
Either the bride or gro
om of a typical sham couple will be from a European Union country, usually France, Portugal or Spain, and the other from outside the EU, most frequently Africa or Turkey. Sham brides and grooms from B
rit
ain are ra
re because immigration officials can insist the non-Euro
pean partner return to the home country to apply for residency here.
Fixers get round this by finding sham partners from EU nations working in Britain.
Rimmer said that marriage fixers charged 5,000 pounds for each wedding, creaming off 3,000 pounds for themselves and giving 2,000 pounds to the European bride or groom.
With such scams rife, some fixers are estimated to earn more than 100,000 pounds a year and a handful could be making more than 500,000 pounds, the survey stated.
One of the few to be caught is estimated to have earned more than one million pounds annually and had 300 people seeking EU spouses on his books.
Other sham marriages are carried out by individuals offering their services as a
husband or wife and charging up to 3,500 pounds. One woman who arranged a bogus marriage, but pulled out before the ceremony said, " was desperate to stay in England but my visa was about to r
un out.
I met this man w
ho said he would marry me for 3,500 pounds.
The 2,65
2 registrars in England, Wales and Scotland have little difficulty in spotting many of the bogus couples. It has been known for brides to refer to the groom's passport to discover his name or for couples to speak through interpreters.