A woman who took part in a sham marriage after meeting a Nigerian national through Facebook has been jailed.
Former
Fearns and Accrington and Rossendale College pupil Emma Louise Evans
engaged in a ‘marriage of convenience’ with Nigerian national Kazeem
Kolade after meeting him at Victoria coach station in London.
Burnley Crown Court heard how they married over a year later in 2012 and Mr Kolade then applied to remain in the UK two weeks later.
Evans, 35, pleaded guilty to assisting in unlawful immigration by taking part in a marriage of convenience, and was jailed for six months.
Neville Biddle, prosecuting, told the court how Mr Kolade arrived in the UK on a student visa and was introduced to Evans through a third party on Facebook in March 2011.
They attended a ‘notice of intention to marry’ interview and married in July 2012 in Blackburn.
Mr Biddle said: “It was, however, a sham marriage and the defendant never made any attempt to hide that fact in her prepared statement.”
Mr Biddle told the court that, when interviewed by police, Evans said she understood Mr Kolade ‘wanted to marry me’ but ‘didn’t realise how far the planning would go’.
She told officers that she ‘felt pressurised into doing something I didn’t want to do’ but still went ahead with the wedding ceremony.
Mr Biddle said Mr Kolade’s attitude ‘changed significantly’ after Evans, of Hufling Lane, Burnley, refused to let him to come to her home. The marriage was annulled in Nigeria in December 2012.
Mark Stuart, defending, urged the judge to pass a suspended sentence and said it was an ‘unusual case in that she is not the instigator nor received a great deal of personal reward out of it’.
He told the court: “They made the arrangements - and not her - and she was used by them to allow Mr Kolade to move over here and change his status.
“Within a very short period of time he left and she has never seen him again.
“The difficulty is she went through the intention to marry and it was weeks later when she went through the marriage ceremony. During that time she had ample opportunity to tell the police.”
Mr Stuart said she received £400 in cash from Mr Kolade but ‘never agreed an amount of money to marry him’.
Judge Jonathan Gibson said jail was necessary for Evans to ‘send out a message’.
Sentencing, he said: “You were approached by a third party who you apparently met on social media and who introduced you to the prospective husband, in this case from Nigeria, and who had no right to remain in the UK.
“You agreed to go through with a sham marriage with him.
“It may be some pressure was brought to bear but ultimately there was plenty of time and opportunity for you to alert the authorities to what was happening had you wished to do so.
“It’s clear an inevitable custodial sentence must follow although it will be substantially reduced.
“Offences of this kind strike at the heart of the immigration system and are difficult to detect.
“Once they are detected the message must go out to all those tempted to become involved that the penalties will be severe.”
Burnley Crown Court heard how they married over a year later in 2012 and Mr Kolade then applied to remain in the UK two weeks later.
Evans, 35, pleaded guilty to assisting in unlawful immigration by taking part in a marriage of convenience, and was jailed for six months.
Neville Biddle, prosecuting, told the court how Mr Kolade arrived in the UK on a student visa and was introduced to Evans through a third party on Facebook in March 2011.
They attended a ‘notice of intention to marry’ interview and married in July 2012 in Blackburn.
Mr Biddle said: “It was, however, a sham marriage and the defendant never made any attempt to hide that fact in her prepared statement.”
Mr Biddle told the court that, when interviewed by police, Evans said she understood Mr Kolade ‘wanted to marry me’ but ‘didn’t realise how far the planning would go’.
She told officers that she ‘felt pressurised into doing something I didn’t want to do’ but still went ahead with the wedding ceremony.
Mr Biddle said Mr Kolade’s attitude ‘changed significantly’ after Evans, of Hufling Lane, Burnley, refused to let him to come to her home. The marriage was annulled in Nigeria in December 2012.
Mark Stuart, defending, urged the judge to pass a suspended sentence and said it was an ‘unusual case in that she is not the instigator nor received a great deal of personal reward out of it’.
He told the court: “They made the arrangements - and not her - and she was used by them to allow Mr Kolade to move over here and change his status.
“Within a very short period of time he left and she has never seen him again.
“The difficulty is she went through the intention to marry and it was weeks later when she went through the marriage ceremony. During that time she had ample opportunity to tell the police.”
Mr Stuart said she received £400 in cash from Mr Kolade but ‘never agreed an amount of money to marry him’.
Judge Jonathan Gibson said jail was necessary for Evans to ‘send out a message’.
Sentencing, he said: “You were approached by a third party who you apparently met on social media and who introduced you to the prospective husband, in this case from Nigeria, and who had no right to remain in the UK.
“You agreed to go through with a sham marriage with him.
“It may be some pressure was brought to bear but ultimately there was plenty of time and opportunity for you to alert the authorities to what was happening had you wished to do so.
“It’s clear an inevitable custodial sentence must follow although it will be substantially reduced.
“Offences of this kind strike at the heart of the immigration system and are difficult to detect.
“Once they are detected the message must go out to all those tempted to become involved that the penalties will be severe.”
No comments:
Post a Comment