Men behind string of Shropshire sham marriages jailed
The men behind a string of sham marriages that took place in Shropshire last year have been jailed.
Zaffar Abbas, 45, and Davinder Singh, 40, both denied charges of conspiracy to facilitate a breach of immigration law.
Sentenced at Northampton Crown Court yesterday, Abbas was jailed for six years three months and Singh for two years five months. Five other men and women who took part or planned to take part in the sham weddings, were given 16 months each.
Abbas and Singh were said to be the key players in setting up bogus marriages between Indians and Eastern Europeans.
Singh would source the "brides" and "grooms" while Abbas organised the weddings and subsequent applications to the Home Office for the non-European nationals to stay in the UK.
The marriages all took place at Shrewsbury Register Office between January and March last year. Workers noticed brides and grooms knew nothing about each other and in some cases could not even speak the same language.
A sham marriage is when a non-European national marries someone from the UK solely to gain long-term residency and the right to work and claim benefits in this country.
Abbas, of Bescot Street, Walsall, pleaded not guilty to six counts of conspiracy to facilitate a breach of immigration law, but was found guilty on five. Singh, of Nineveh Road, Handsworth, Birmingham, was found guilty of one count of conspiracy to facilitate a breach of immigration law.
The "brides" and "grooms" involved were Romanian Marcella Brotac, 37, Slovakian Vladimir Gazi, 40, Latvian Ivars Mizans, 34, and Indians Harpinder Singh, 23, and Gurpreet Kaur, 25.
Brotac, who lives in James Turner Street, Winson Green, Birmingham, infamously featured on TV's Benefits Street, had agreed to marry Harjeet Singh, 25, just 24 hours after meeting him. She was jailed for 16 months.
