Sham wedding woman jailed
ABOGUS bride who took part in a sham marriage in a bid to gain UK residency has been jailed.
Huma Aslam, 26, of Stanley Road, Cheadle, was jailed for two years after pleading guilty at Newcastle Crown Court to a charge of conspiring to facilitate a breach of immigration law.
Video footage of her arriving at a register office had been released.
Aslam and her partner Muhammad Hanif, 23, a Pakistani couple in the UK on student visas, were locked up alongside three others after a Home Office investigation.
Three other defendants walked free with suspended prison sentences.
Aslam and Hanif ‘swapped partners’ for the day with Czech couple Michal Mankos and Katerina Gerychova, the Home Office said.
Aslam and Mankos, 24, visited Newcastle Civic Centre to tie the knot posing as bride and groom.
Hanif and Gerychova, 24, meanwhile travelled from Newcastle to Gretna in July last year to take part in a sham wedding.
The couples had been introduced by ‘sham marriage fixers’ Waseem Shah and Ivan Holub, who said they could help them by-pass immigration law.
Home Office investigators, however, swooped to arrest both fake couples and the fixers as the ceremonies were due to begin. All eight defendants pleaded guilty to the same charge.
Home Office investigator Craig Hobbs, from Immigration Enforcement Criminal Investigations, said: “This was a brazen attempt to trample over the marriage and immigration laws.
“Hanif and Aslam and Mankos and Gerychova were in genuine relationships together, but thought nothing of fraudulently marrying people who were essentially complete strangers.
“Foreign nationals who believe a sham wedding is their route to staying in the UK should think again.”
Hanif, from Newcastle, was jailed for 18 months. Mankos, from Byker, Newcastle, was jailed for 30 months. Gerychova, from Gateshead, received a 20-month suspended sentence.
Fixer Shah, 30, from Newcastle, was jailed for three years, nine months, and Holub, 24, from Gateshead, was jailed for 33 months. Co-conspirators Vladislava Mankosova, from Gateshead, received a 15-month suspended sentence and Simon Poliak, 19, also from Gateshead, got a 13-month suspended sentence.
‘This was a brazen attempt to trample over laws’