Vicar jailed over bogus marriage scam
Updated on 06 September 2010
A Church of England vicar has been sentenced to four years in jail for his part in Britain's biggest sham marriage fraud.
61 year-old Reverend Alex Brown helped hundreds of African men gain permanent residency in the United Kingdom through bogus marriages to Eastern European women.
Brown oversaw 383 marriages at the Church of St Peter and St Paul at St Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex from 2005 to 2009, more than 30 times more than in the previous four years.
Investigators told the Lewes Crown Court 360 of those were sham marriages.
The women were paid up to £3,000 to wed migrants in the 'massive and cynical scam'.
In some cases a person was registered to marry two people on the same day, and in others, participants cancelled one wedding only to marry someone else a month later.
The Crown Prosecution Service described the case as 'unprecedented', and said it is thought to be the largest sham marriage case to be brought to court.
Brown and his co-accused, solicitor Michael Adelasoye and bride 'recruiter' Vladymyr Buchak were sentenced to four years in jail for conspiring to breach immigration laws.
Judge Richard Hayward also handed Brown a five-month sentence after he pleaded guilty to solemnising a marriage without reading the banns.
Brown insisted he only ever married couples he thought were getting married for the right reasons but admitted he occasionally forgot to check the documents of foreign nationals.
The group was caught after the UK Border Agency launched an investigation into a surge in immigration applications from people who had married at Brown's church.
"We can never say this sort of criminality would not happen again, but we're hoping with the profile that this case has had, that it sends out a clear message that criminality against immigration law is unacceptable," Detective Inspector Andy Cummins said.
Outside the court, the Bishop of Lewes, Right Reverend Wallace Benn, said he was extremely disappointed by the scam.
"It doesn't do the church any favours at all. But I would appeal to you to understand that one problem doesn't mean there is a myriad of problems."
