Married man arranged sham same-sex wedding
A married father-of-two arranged a sham same-sex wedding with a Slovakian man in a ploy to stay in the UK after his visa ran out.
Gurmail Joshan, aged 35, who has a wife and two children in India, booked the civil partnership ceremony to take place in Gretna Green in Scotland – famous for runaway weddings – four days in advance.
But proceedings were brought to a halt when Home Office officials swooped on the register office and arrested both men.
During the swoop they also found one of the wedding witnesses holding Joshan's bank card and an envelope containing £1,000 in cash, a court heard.
Joshan was handed a 12-month prison term at Wolverhampton Crown Court by a judge who said he wanted to set an example.
Sentencing him, Judge Michael Challinor said: "You determined upon a sham marriage in order to defeat the immigration laws.
"That is a serious matter, as you know.
"People must understand that if they enter into sham marriages for the purpose you did that they will go to prison, even though they are of good character."
He added: "It was a relatively unsophisticated operation. Your motive was not to commit associated crime but was for economic reasons."
Suspicions had first been raised because Joshan, of New Street, West Bromwich, had previously arranged three separate marriages for himself.
Both he and a Czech woman he planned to wed failed to attend on all three occasions, the court heard.
After he did not attend on the first occasion, which was in January this year, a member of staff at the register office called to ask him where he was.
He said snow had prevented him from travelling.
But he later told the member of staff he did not attend because his wife had been in hospital, raising her suspicions and prompting her to place a 'flag' next to his name, the court was told.
Mrs Elizabeth Bussey-Jones, prosecuting, said of his latest attempt, this time to marry a man from Slovakia: "This is not in any way a genuine relationship."
Mr Jasvir Mann, defending, said it had been a 'fairly unsophisticated attempt' as Joshan had 'effectively placed a spotlight on his offences' with his previous marriage arrangements.
Joshan pleaded guilty to a single charge of assisting unlawful immigration to a member state.
