Gang found guilty of sham marriage scam across the Black Country
Eleven people involved in a sham marriages racket are facing prison and deportation.
The gang included a burly church pastor from Wolverhampton who recruited the bogus brides and grooms.
Suspicions were raised by register office staff following a wedding, where the 'happy couple' seemed to barely know each other.
The jury's guilty verdicts on immigration offences yesterday came three years after the Home Office launched a probe.
Wolverhampton pastor Donald Nwachuckwu and a 33-year-old man from Bilston who cannot be named for legal reasons, joined forces with crooked law student Olatunji George to cash in on a valuable asset – a person's right to stay in the UK and claim benefits.
The pastor, 41, found West Africans prepared to pay up to £6,500 for their services. The Bilston man, also found guilty of forgery, created false utility bills, rent books, pay slips and employment records to fabricate personal histories.
George, 44, of Taylor Road, Tividale, used his legal studies to organise the bogus paperwork into applications for a European Economic Area (EEA) resident's card.
The brides and grooms were promised up to £1,800 each to take part in the plot which ran from January 2012 to March last year.
The tell-tale body language of couples and their inability to provide basic facts about their partner alerted register office staff. In 2013 immigration officials halted the marriage of 26-year-old Nigerian Edward James, of Whitmore Reans and Czech Julie Ondova, 20, of Goldthorn Park, who already had a boyfriend and two children but had accepted payment to play the role of bride.
They both deported after they admitted facilitating a breach of immigration law. He was jailed for 20 months and she for 16 months. Ondova told investigators Nwachuckwu had arranged the wedding and paid her to take part. His mobiles linked him to George and the man from Bilston.
Nwachuckwu used his position as a senior pastor in the Kingdom of Godfire church in Ward Street, Bilston, to identify those with no right to be in the UK. An astonishing £153,000 worth of credits passed through bank accounts he ran under a false name. He was arrested at his home in Oldbury.
Also convicted of conspiracy to facilitate a breach of immigration law were: Victor Ibeh, 32, of Whitmore Reans; Cherene Cotterill, 27, and Pavel Farbar, 30,of Handsworth; Lenka Jocova, 38, of Park Village; Peter Frederick, 27, of Whitmore Reans; Jozef Puzo, 28, of Smethwick; Idris Agia, 31, of Highgate; Aishatu Ibrahim, 25. They are due to be sentenced on October 21.
