FOUR people are on trial over “sham marriages” arranged to beat UK immigration rules.
Marriages of convenience were allegedly arranged between Nigerian and Portuguese nationals, and applications then made to the Home Office for leave to stay here.
James House, prosecuting, told the trial at Nottingham Crown Court: “The evidence establishes what amounts to a fairly complex criminal conspiracy to defeat immigration control in the UK.
“The purpose of it is to enable people who have no legal right to be here to obtain the necessary paperwork needed to work and claim benefits.”
Jurors will be provided with evidence of a further seven “sham marriages” that took place in churches and registry offices in Nottingham.
Eighteen more people are named as being involved in these “marriages”.
A businessman was at the heart of the conspiracy but he has “done a disappearing act”, the court heard.
He ran HCI Consultants, in Nottingham, providing immigration advice and services, and allegedly provided the immigration advice in all of the sham marriages. He also allegedly provided fake references for Europeans to establish they were living and working in the UK.
Defendant Duke Okorie’s supposed spouse, a Portuguese woman called Carla Ramos, never in fact entered the UK – someone of a similar appearance, who has not been traced, took her name and place at the wedding service.
Mr House said Okorie had no right to be in the UK and the marriage was a “mechanism” for him to cheat the immigration laws.
Michael Eke married a woman, who had a Portuguese passport, at a Nottingham church in 2009.
But the bride allegedly has two children by someone else and was claiming benefit in Portugal.
Mr House said from May 2002, Eke had no right to be in the UK.
“He appears to be suggested he had a right to be here and work as an international businessman and said he had been assaulted in the UK and suffered an injury to his ear and it required treatment and [he] was on the waiting list and that gave him right to remain.”
Defendants Leya Mtonga, from Zambia, and husband Nuno Moriera, an EU resident said to have been paid for his role, wed at Nottingham Registry Office on October 22, 2009.
They maintain it was a marriage of love and not a sham.
Okorie, 39, of Westgate Street, St Ann’s, Eke, 39, of Hazlewood Road, Hyson Green, Mtonga, 39, and Moriera, 29, both of Debs Hill Lane, Northole, Middlesex, deny conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration to a member state between January 1, 2008, and August 8, 2010.
Mr House said: “In short, in this case, it’s entering into a sham marriage to get the right to remain or getting paid to enter into a sham marriage.”
The hearing continues.
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