A sham wedding designed to obtain a UK spouse visa has resulted in the arrest of the 'bride and groom' concerned.
The wedding was stopped on Monday (August 1st) at the Armagh Register Office in Northern Ireland following an investigation into organised sham marriages in the area by the UK Border Agency (UKBA).
Muhammed Naeem Aslam, a 22-year-old Pakistan national, was found to have attempted to marry Jolantea Juska, a 21-year-old Latvian national, for immigration purposes. He was charged with seeking to obtain leave to remain in the UK by deception, while the bride and her sister Jana Juska, who acted as witness to the wedding, were charged with assisting unlawful immigration.
Earl Aiken, senior criminal investigator at the UKBA, commented on the arrests: “The UKBA is determined to identify marriages that may not be genuine, and where we suspect that may be the case we will investigate.
“We have specialist teams of immigration officers and police working together to investigate cases just like this and ensuring people are not able to benefit from breaking the UK's immigration laws.”
Meanwhile, a separate operation this week resulted in the arrest of a 21-year-old Pakistan national at Belfast City Hall for his part in a sham wedding. The 'groom' was arrested for overstaying the conditions of his UK visa.