Published Wednesday, 25 January 2012
Jana Juska and her sister Jolantea were arrested in August, moments before Jolantea was to marry Pakistani student Muhammad Naeem Aslam.
At Newry Crown Court, Judge Kevin Finnegan QC said the marriage was "borne out of desperation".
The Latvian sisters, aged 26 and 22, were each given three month jail term, suspended for a year. Aslam, 23, was handed down a six month sentence, but as time already served.
Judge Finnegan said the proposed bogus wedding to allow Aslam to remain here, was not a "commercial operation ...and did not bear the hallmarks of outside organisation".
The court heard Aslam needed a visa and the sister's were facing being made homeless and needed money to pay their rent and to buy food.
Aslam had previously helped the sisters out by paying some bills and the court heard he had given Jolantea £1,000 to go through with the marriage.
Prosecution lawyer Geraldine McCullough said the union between Jolantea, staying at the Women's' Aid in Belfast, and Aslam, of Railway Street in Armagh, in August last year raised suspicions at the Armagh Register Office.
Staff noticed the prospective bride and groom appeared to know nothing about each other and there was no interaction between them.
The lawyer also revealed later the same day another sham marriage involving a second Pakistani, who had Aslam's passport, was halted when UK Border Agency officials swooped on Belfast City Hall and arrested the 21-year-old 'groom'.
Defence lawyer Kevin Magill for Jana Juska, said she and her sister, who were living in Armagh at the time, were "essentially in desperation" after losing their jobs and faced being made homeless.
The girls later told police: "We've no money, we must eat and pay rent... What are we to do, no one would help".
Justine Byrne, for Jolantea Juska, said at the time the sisters were not entitled to any social security benefits and both were "in some desperation" and Jolantea's decision to volunteer as a bride "was pure chance".
At the time of the wedding, Aslam's student visa had 17 days left, but he had no money and had moved to Armagh to stay with a friend. He has since agreed to return home to Pakistan.
Martin McLaughlin said his client Aslam had been friendly with Jolantea and what happened was "not a sophisticated enterprise .... and did not involve anything sinister".
Aslam pleaded guilty to conspiring to remain in the UK through the sham marriage, while the sisters admitted agreeing to help in breaching the immigration laws by taking part in the wedding.
Earl Aiken, senior criminal investigator for the UK Border Agency said after the sentencing:
"This case shows the desperate lengths to which people will go by entering into a marriage with someone they barely know to help them cheat the immigration system in exchange for cash.
"The UK Border Agency is cracking down on sham marriages and those who seek to cheat immigration laws face prosecution and conviction."