Eight arrests over ‘sham’ UK wedding ceremonies

EIGHT MEN have been arrested by immigration officers moments before six allegedly “sham” wedding ceremonies.

A Home Office immigration enforcement team said the men, from Pakistan, were in the UK illegally when they were arrested at Gretna registration office in Dumfries and Galloway on Thursday July 18.

Five of them are said to have been there as grooms-to-be while the other three were guests and all of them, aged between 27 and 40, are said to have travelled from Bradford, Manchester, Southall, Blackburn and Wolverhampton.

Officials said six have been detained and are to be removed from the UK while two others are to report regularly to the Home Office while their pending immigration cases are concluded.

The brides-to-be are said to be from Romania, the Czech Republic and the UK. They were interviewed and released.

Anna Beattie, from the Home Off ice immigration enforcement team, said: “A nyone in the UK illegally and seeking to evade our immigration laws should take heed of this latest operation.”

A sham marriage or civil partnership is described by the Home Office as the union between a nonEuropean national and someone from the European Economic A rea in an attempt to gain longterm residency, the right to work and the right to claim benefits in the UK.