UK immigration authorities have arrested an Egyptian man in Wales shortly before he was due to get married.
The 22-year-old was arrested at Llandudno Register Office on July 30th after UK Border Agency (UKBA) officers received information that an immigration offender from Egypt was planning to get married at the location.
His bride, an Italian national, was also taken in for questioning but no further action has been taken against her, suggesting that the wedding may not have been organised purely to gain access to a UK spouse visa.
Rather, it appears that the arrest is centred around the fact that the groom had remained in the country following the expiration of his legal UK visa. He has since been taken to St Asaph police station and transferred to an immigration detention centre where he will remain until plans are in place to remove him from the country.
Richard Johnson, from the UKBA, commented on the case: “We carry out operations every week across Wales and will arrest offenders at businesses, home addresses and even when they are attempting to get married as this case shows.
“When we receive information about people who are in the country illegally we act on it.”
He added that the swift actions taken by the authorities send a “simple, clear message to anyone attempting to undermine the UK's immigration laws” - they will be investigated and caught if they are seeking to break the law.
The news comes shortly after the sentencing of a Nigerian man who was resident in East London. He was discovered by the immigration authorities to have organised sham weddings in order to fix people up with UK spouse visas. It appears that the Egyptian man's planned wedding was not conducted with this in mind although further investigations are yet to be conducted.