JAILED: Brains behind West Midlands sham marriage racket
The brains behind a West Midlands sham marriage racket has been jailed for six years three months.
Fixer Zaffar Abbas, aged 45 and living in Walsall was the key player in setting up the bogus weddings between Indians and Eastern Europeans.
His right hand man Davinder Singh, aged 40, a naturalised Slovakian with a home in Handsworth, was locked up for two years five months.
Five 'brides' and 'grooms' who took part, or planned to take part, in the sham weddings were each sentenced to 16 months behind bars at the Northampton Crown Court hearing.
They included 37-year-old Romanian Marcella Brotac who was living in James Turner Street, Winson Green, made famous by the channel 4 TV show Benefits Street.
The scam saw illegal immigrants pay up to £12,000 to be fixed up in a sham marriage with a national from European Union country with an address in this country. This allowed them to apply for the right to live, work and claim benefits in this country.
Singh would source the Eastern European 'brides' while Abbas organised the weddings and subsequent applications to the Home Office for the non-European nationals to stay in the UK.
Bogus weddings took place at Shrewsbury Register Office between January and March 2014 and others were planned but the racket was uncovered when suspicious Register Office staff noticed brides and grooms spoke different languages and showed little knowledge or interest in each other at the services. Suspects were arrested in swoops by police and Home Office investigators in March last year.
Brotac had been attempting to marry a man called Harjeet Singth, whom she met just 24 hours before attending the Register Office to give an intention of notice of marriage
Stephen Thomas, prosecuting, told jurors at Birmingham Crown Court during an earlier trial: "Zaffar Abbas is the common link. He was the organiser, the facilitator of these sham marriages. He was the one who brought the whole enterprise together for people so they could stay in the country."
The bogus brides and grooms jailed were Marcella Brotac, 23-year-old Indian Harpinder Singh who had a home in Nineveh Road, Handsworth, Slovak Vladimir Gazi aged 40, living at Hobgate Road, Heath Town, Latvian Ivars Mizans, 34, living at Dudley Street, West Bromwich and 25-year-old Indian Gurpreet Kaur Indian who also had a home in Dudley Street. Each either or admitted a charge of conspiracy to break immigration law.
Zaffar Abbas, who is naturalised British, from Bescot Street, Walsall had pleaded not guilty to six counts of conspiracy to facilitate a breach of immigration law and been found guilty on five of these at an earlier trial. Davinder Singh of Nineveh Road, Handsworth was found guilty a single charge of conspiracy to facilitate a breach of immigration law that he denied.
Harjeet Singh a 25-year-old Indian living at Florence Street, West Bromwich had been sentenced to six months jail at a previous court hearing after admitting a similar charge.
Czech Zdenka Gaborova, 36, of Wallace Close, Oldbury who had also admitted a similar offence failed to turn up for her sentencing at Northampton Crown Court and is now being hunted.
Andy Radcliffe, from Home Office Criminal Investigations, said: "Abbas and Singh set up this scam to profit from abusing the marriage system and the UK's immigration laws but have ended up in prison.
"These sentences show that sham marriage crime will not be tolerated. Whether you are an organiser or a participant, we will always act when abuse of the immigration system is uncovered and seek to prosecute those involved."
A sham marriage or civil partnership typically occurs when a non-European national marries someone from the European Economic Area as a means of attempting to gain long-term residency and the right to work and claim benefits in the UK.
Immigration and Security Minister James Brokenshire said: "We are building an immigration system which is fair to British citizens and legitimate immigrants, and tough on those who flout the law. These figures send a clear message to anyone who thinks they can cheat our immigration system. Our specialist teams will catch you, and you will be brought to justice.
"Last year, we intervened in more than 2,400 suspected sham marriages – 85% more than the year before. The new Immigration Act is also making it even tougher for fraudsters by extending the marriage and civil partnership notice period – giving officers and registrars longer to investigate suspicious marriages."
Anyone with information about suspected immigration abuse can contact Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 anonymously or visit http://www.crimestoppers-uk.org.
