Three arrested from Wolverhampton and Oldbury in sham marriage operation

Officers from the Home Office's Criminal Investigations team swooped on addresses in Wolverhampton and Oldbury.

Two Nigerian men and a Czech woman were arrested and questioned on suspicion of conspiracy to facilitate a breach the UK's immigration laws.

All three are suspected of arranging and taking part in sham marriages, or using fake relationships with European Union nationals in order to stay in the UK.

The arrests came as part of an ongoing investigation into a suspected sham marriage ring operating in the Black Country.

As a result of the raids which happened on July 23 a 42-year-old Nigerian man was arrested at his home in Taylor Way, Oldbury, while a 36-year-old woman from the Czech Republic was arrested at a house in Quatford Gardens, Wolverhampton.

A 24-year-old Nigerian man was arrested when he handed himself in to Wolverhampton police station.

Andy Radcliffe, from the Home Office's West Midlands Criminal Investigations Team, said: "The arrests are part of an ongoing investigation into a suspected sham marriage ring.

"Where there are suspicions that a relationship may not be genuine we will investigate and, if necessary, intervene to stop it happening.

"This investigation will now continue following the arrests we have made and the evidence we have seized."

The operation was carried out by the Home Office's Criminal Investigations team, supported by officers from Immigration Enforcement.

Earlier this year 10 people received prison sentences totalling more than 16 years after Home Office investigators smashed the Black Country's biggest ever sham marriage racket.

Paralegal Mohammed Akhtar, aged 28, from Dunstall Road, Wolverhampton, was jailed for five years for masterminding a plot to organise marriages between Eastern European women and men from the Indian subcontinent.

He charged participants substantial fees in a bid to flout immigration laws and allow them to gain long-term residency and the right to work and claim benefits in the UK.

His crooked scheme - which involved fake love letters and staged wedding pictures - came to the attention of Home Office investigators after staff at Wolverhampton Register Office reported a marriage between a 'couple' who could not speak the same language.

Keith Vaz, the chairman of the Commons home affairs select committee, said last week that the number of sham marriages in Britain is 'spiralling out of control'.

A report by the committee said the number of bogus marriages is increasing at an "alarming rate" and is making a "mockery" of the country's immigration system.

Anyone with information about suspected immigration abuse can report it online via: gov.uk/report-immigration-crime or by calling Crimestoppers on 0800 555111.