Four sham weddings rumbled every day: Institution of marriage is being hijacked, says MPs

Arrests over fake weddin gs have more than tripled in a single year

MPs say marriage is being 'hijacked' by foreigners illegally entering Britain

As many as 10,000 out of 173,000 civil weddings are fake



1,338 raids connected to sham weddings last year, up from 529



Sham marriage is ‘spiralling out of control’ in Britain, with officials called in over bogus ceremonies nearly four times a day, an MPs’ report has revealed.

The Home Office Select Committee said that arrests over fake weddings have more than tripled in a single year, as the ‘precious institution’ of marriage is routinely ‘hijacked’ by foreigners intent on illegally entering Britain.

Their damning report accused the marriages – often between ‘away-day brides’ from Eastern Europe and men from outside the EU – of making a ‘mockery’ of our legal system.

Officials are called in over bogus wedding ceremonies near four times a day, reveals a new report (file picture)

And it said the Home Office is hopelessly unaware of the ‘alarming’ scale of the scandal, which represents a ‘significant threat’ to immigration control.

It is thought that as many as 10,000 out of 173,000 civil weddings each year in England and Wales are fake. A sham marriage does not just allow a non-EU national the right to stay in Britain, but also their children, grandchildren, parents and grandparents – piling extra pressure on public services.

Last year, immigration officials carried out 1,338 raids connected to sham marriages, up from 529 in 2012. The number arrested for taking part in a fake union more than tripled from 221 to 725 over the same period.

But remarkably, an ‘absurd’ legal loophole means that two people living in the UK can be married by proxy, without any ceremony actually taking place in this country. This means they can technically get married without leaving the UK, as long as they are ‘represented’ at their overseas wedding ceremony, usually by a family member.

Warning that the situation was ‘spiralling out of control,’ committee chairman Keith Vaz, a Labour MP, said: ‘There is an industry of deceit in the UK which uses sham marriages to circumvent immigration control.

‘Marriage is a precious institution and should not be hijacked to make a mockery of the law or our immigration system. We cannot afford for any town or city to become a back-door entry to our country.’

Last year immigration officials carried out 1,338 raids connected to sham marriages in the UK

He added: ‘It is absurd that we accept marriages where the two parties do not attend the ceremony. This allows an easy ticket into the UK. This proxy marriage loophole must be closed immediately.’



Sham marriages are increasingly popular among immigrants because anyone who enters a bogus relationship successfully can use it to stay in Britain for five years and eventually obtain citizenship.

Under Brussels rules, they can then apply for permission to bring in their extended family.

Officials have found a growing number of Eastern European women are being paid to visit Britain for a few days and supposedly marry a man, then return alone to their home countries. Their fake husbands are mainly from Nigeria, Ghana, Brazil and Pakistan.

The report calls on Home Secretary Theresa May to start routinely publishing figures on the number of sham marriage reports, interventions, arrests, prosecutions and eventual deportations.



It also suggests that the Home Office should write to the embassies of European nationals commonly involved in sham marriages, warning them that it could lead to a criminal record and being booted out of Britain.

The report demands beefed-up enforcement teams and more efforts to encourage reporting of suspected sham marriages.



And it urges the Home Office to give registrars extra training so that they are better qualified to recognise scams, as well as giving them more power to stop marriages they believe are suspicious.

A Home Office spokesman said: ‘We are taking ever tougher action, including through the new Immigration Act, to crack down on those who try to cheat our immigration system by abusing marriage laws.’

But Sir Andrew Green, of MigrationWatch, said: ‘Sham marriages are a huge cost to the taxpayer. This is a very serious loophole in our immigration controls and must be part of our renegotiations with the European Union.’



Migrant got pregnant to fake wedding

An illegal immigrant who was afraid that her sham marriage was about to be exposed deliberately became pregnant to try to stay in Britain.

Leya Mtonga, who comes from Zambia, wed 29-year-old Portuguese national Nuno Moriera in Nottingham in 2009 to get the right to live in the UK. He was paid to join in with the pretence.

Photographs seized by investigators showed the pair smiling together and looking every inch the happy couple after the ceremony.

Portuguese national Nuno Moriera at his sham wedding to Zambian Leya Mtonga, who became pregnant when she feared the marriage was to be exposed

But the fake union was uncovered as part of a major crackdown on sham weddings. A probe in the city uncovered an immigration scam involving a dozen bogus unions.

Mtonga was arrested by Home Office immigration officials in June 2012 and then got pregnant in a bid to prove that her relationship was real. She was expecting a baby during her three-week trial at Nottingham Crown Court.

But Mtonga was accused of committing a ‘selfish and cynical’ act as she was jailed for two years in December last year for her involvement in the sham marriage ring.



Sentencing her, Judge Philip Head said of her pregnancy: ‘I’m driven to the conclusion that it was a conscious and deliberate decision to try to bolster your claim to a genuine marriage.’



Mtonga, 39, came to Britain on a student visa to train as a dental nurse, but never went home. She is now facing being deported from Britain.



