A UK marriage visa sham has resulted in the arrest of the groom, who was from India.
Immigration officials from the UK Border Agency (UKBA) questioned the 27-year-old man concerned shortly before the ceremony was due to take place this Wednesday morning (February 9th).
As part of a nationwide effort to crackdown on UK marriage visa scams, the immigration team apprehended the man at Redbridge Registry Office. It is believed he was planning on marrying a 34-year-old Polish woman here in a bid to gain a permanent UK visa for residency in this country.
Tony Moore, head of the local UKBA immigration team for Barking, Dagenham, Havering and Redbridge, commented: "This man used deception to begin a life in the UK and is now resorting to desperate measures to extend his illegal stay here.
"We are alive to this kind of abuse of the immigration system and are working extremely closely with registrars and the clergy to clamp down on suspicious marriages."
The individual claimed to have entered to country legitimately in 2003 on a visitor's UK visa and that he has since lost his passport. However, searches of databases revealed that there is no record of this arrival and evidence obtained through questioning and a search of his house suggests that he entered the country using a false identity.
The bride has been released without charge for her role in the UK marriage visa scam, while the man is being detained in an immigration removal centre as he awaits deportation.