During the period of July 2005 and September 2009 383 couples married in a small church in St Leonards-on-sea
. The church was so busy at one point that a wedding was conducted every day. The church was the crime scene of what police have suggested to be the biggest uncovered marriage scam the UK has ever known.
A jury have now decided that Ukrainian national Vladymyr Buchak and Nigerian born solicitor Michael Adelasoye were guilty of conspiring to breach British immigration laws by arranging hundreds of false marriages. Vicar Alex Brown was also found guilty.
Hundreds of weddings between Western Africans and eastern Europeans took place with eastern Europeans being paid on average 3000 a time for pretending t be a bride or groom for the day.
Under British law, spouses of European nationals with working rights in the UK are usually granted permanent residency as long as they can prove they have been together for two years after their wedding. The couples in this case went their separate ways after the service but remained in contact to fill in any paperwork required.
When officers searched the church they found registers stuffed with details of every ceremony conducted by Brown in the last nine years. Between August 2001 and July 2005, Rev Brown presided over just 13 weddings. But over the next four years the number jumped to 383
Police officers now think that only thirteen of the weddings conducted were real, immigration officials are now investigating any residency permits given as a result of the marriages. Many of the couples have now disappeared.
In court Brown insisted he had no idea that the marriages were part of a scam. Police have suggested that just by looking through his registers he should have been able to see there was something strange happening. The parish is in a predominantly white area yet it suddenly became multi cultural with ninety mixed race couples getting married all from the same road at one point.
When the verdicts were read the crown prosecution admitted that this was the biggest marriage scam ever uncovered in Britain.