Bogus marriages have been arranged by a group of fraudulent gangsters who sold their status as singles to assist in illegal migration into the UK from a number of Ghanaian nationals.

The UK Border Agency has announced that after seven months of investigations, a group of four people from Chadwell Heath and Dagenham have been convicted of immigration offences. The gang of four was given prison sentences ranging from five to seven years.

23-year-old Cheryl Collier from Suffolk Court in Chadwell Heath and Lisa Curtis, also 23, from Heathway in Dagenham both admitted to charges and deemed guilty of immigration facilitation offences during a Crown Court hearing in Croydon last week.

Terry Hadley, the 33-year-old cousin of Lisa Curtis was found guilty of the same offence along with his partner, 28-year-old Kelly Bellotti, both from Fenman Gardens in Ilford.

The sham marriages occurred at the end of 2007 and beginning of 2008 when the three women all married men from Ghana. The new husbands all then applied for permission to remain in the UK. The UKBA has said that none of the unions lasted very long and that immigration officials began to have suspicions about the weddings.

The UKBA tipped off the agency’s National tactical Operations Unit which led to a search of Curtis’ home where a price list was found detailing the charges to the illegal immigrants for the gang’s services. Curtis was also discovered to be associated with further fake marriages.

All three women admitted to marrying for money and two of the Ghanaian men have been jailed and subsequently deported. The third is still on the run and wanted by the UKBA. The Judge claimed the women had sold their single person status as a commodity and sentenced the gang to 15 – 18 months in prison.

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