Confused bride exposes sham marriage plot after forgetting groom's name.
Jayeola Abiola, 27,
has been jailed for 12 months and his would-be wife Vania
Pinheiro-Fernandes, 29, from Portugal for eight months. Photograph: Home
Office/PA
A bogus couple whose sham marriage was scuppered after the bride
could not remember the groom's name have been jailed. Jayeola Abiola,
27, a Nigerian national, barely knew his would-be wife Vania
Pinheiro-Fernandes, 29, from Portugal. They planned to walk down the
aisle to the ballad The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face – a choice Hull
crown court heard was "rather apt".
Abiola agreed to pay £5,000 for the sham marriage so he could get a visa to stay in the UK, the court heard.
But the ceremony at Hull's Guildhall was halted because a registrar became suspicious that Fernandes struggled with basic questions about her purported partner, and tipped off immigration officers.
David Bradshaw, prosecuting, said Abiola entered Britain legitimately as a student at Hull University but his visa expired in January 2013 – two months after the ceremony.
He handed over large sums of cash to an organiser, who is due to be sentenced at a later hearing. The organiser roped in Fernandes and gave her his ex-wife's passport so she could register under a false name.
Bradshaw told the court: "Because the defendant Abiola knew that his visa was to expire, he wished to continue staying in this country and he arranged to raise the sum of £5,000 and to use that money for an arrangement called a sham marriage.
"Had it happened in the normal way of things, he would have been able to stay in the UK."
Judge Gurdial Singh said a custodial sentence for both defendants was "inevitable" as he jailed Abiola for 12 months and Fernandes for eight months.
The couple went to a registry office in Hull to book the ceremony for November 8 last year.
"The registrar was suspicious because he thought straight away that the lady was not the person in the photo on the passport," Bradshaw said.
"She was also a little bit unsure about the surname of the proposed groom and their answers seemed to be rather rehearsed rather than freely given."
The concerns were reported to immigration enforcement officers, who investigated the case then waited for the couple at the ceremony.
"With a touch of irony, the music selected for the proposed wedding was The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face," Bradshaw told the court.
However, the service did not go ahead as the parties were arrested.
Judge Gurdial Singh said a custodial sentence for both defendants was "inevitable" as he jailed Abiola for 12 months and Fernandes for eight months.
He said: "It's often been said that sham marriages... strike at the heart of the immigration system.
Judge Singh told Abiola: "When you realised you were in danger of becoming an over-stayer, it was your idea to enter into a sham marriage.
"And you paid for it. This was a commercial enterprise and therein lies the seriousness."
Turning to Fernandes, he said: "You went along in the charade, pretending to be the lady shown in that passport."
Two other men, Abiola Kumoye and Ayodeji Abbis, who the court was told played organisational roles in the sham, will be sentenced at a later date.
source: guardian.co.uk
Abiola agreed to pay £5,000 for the sham marriage so he could get a visa to stay in the UK, the court heard.
But the ceremony at Hull's Guildhall was halted because a registrar became suspicious that Fernandes struggled with basic questions about her purported partner, and tipped off immigration officers.
David Bradshaw, prosecuting, said Abiola entered Britain legitimately as a student at Hull University but his visa expired in January 2013 – two months after the ceremony.
He handed over large sums of cash to an organiser, who is due to be sentenced at a later hearing. The organiser roped in Fernandes and gave her his ex-wife's passport so she could register under a false name.
Bradshaw told the court: "Because the defendant Abiola knew that his visa was to expire, he wished to continue staying in this country and he arranged to raise the sum of £5,000 and to use that money for an arrangement called a sham marriage.
"Had it happened in the normal way of things, he would have been able to stay in the UK."
Judge Gurdial Singh said a custodial sentence for both defendants was "inevitable" as he jailed Abiola for 12 months and Fernandes for eight months.
The couple went to a registry office in Hull to book the ceremony for November 8 last year.
"The registrar was suspicious because he thought straight away that the lady was not the person in the photo on the passport," Bradshaw said.
"She was also a little bit unsure about the surname of the proposed groom and their answers seemed to be rather rehearsed rather than freely given."
The concerns were reported to immigration enforcement officers, who investigated the case then waited for the couple at the ceremony.
"With a touch of irony, the music selected for the proposed wedding was The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face," Bradshaw told the court.
However, the service did not go ahead as the parties were arrested.
Judge Gurdial Singh said a custodial sentence for both defendants was "inevitable" as he jailed Abiola for 12 months and Fernandes for eight months.
He said: "It's often been said that sham marriages... strike at the heart of the immigration system.
Judge Singh told Abiola: "When you realised you were in danger of becoming an over-stayer, it was your idea to enter into a sham marriage.
"And you paid for it. This was a commercial enterprise and therein lies the seriousness."
Turning to Fernandes, he said: "You went along in the charade, pretending to be the lady shown in that passport."
Two other men, Abiola Kumoye and Ayodeji Abbis, who the court was told played organisational roles in the sham, will be sentenced at a later date.
source: guardian.co.uk
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