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A senior British judge has overturned 179 divorces after it was discovered that the Italian citizens involved were pretending to live in the UK.

In fact the address they had claimed to live at were all for a mailbox in Maidenhead, Berkshire.

The fraudulent separations were arranged by Dr Frederica Russo, who charged Italian couples between €3,750 and €4,700 (£2,918-£3,656) to arrange a quickie divorce in the UK.

The large scale fraud went on all over the country, with divorces being registered at 137 separate courts.

The problem was first spotted when a court official in Burnley, Lancashire, noticed two divorce cases registered to the same address.

(Image: (Original photo: Claudio Innamorati))

In 179 cases, the same address in Maidenhead, Berkshire was given for the person filing the divorce.

The judge said that the address was found by Thames Valley police to be a mailbox, at a non residential address.

“Given the dimensions of the mailbox it is clear that not even a single individual, however small, could possibly reside in it,” the judge said.

The Italian divorce process usually takes over three years, where as the UK has a much speedier system.

Italians can get a much quicker divorce if one member of the couple is a resident in another EU country.