A gang has been jailed after a 'sham marriage' web unravelled when one of the brides took her boyfriend on honeymoon, instead of her new husband.
Amanda Nolan was one of five people sentenced today for their involvement in fake weddings at Blackburn Register Office.
The bogus ceremonies were held to help immigrants settle illegally in the UK.
Our Lancashire reporter Amy Welch has the story.
Two people are jailed for taking part in sham marriages arranged by a Vietnamese nail bar owner – but the ring leader is still at large
Read the full storyFive members of a gang from Lancashire have been sentenced over a sham marriage scam.
They were convicted of committing an act of deception to facilitate non-EU nationals to remain or enter the UK.
The charges relate to three sham marriages, which took place between October 2008 and October 2010 at Blackburn Registry Office and the Whitehall Country Club in Darwen.
The gang members and their sentences are:
A woman's been jailed after organised sham marriages to allow immigrants to settle in the UK.
Maria Lorero matched up brides from Portugal with grooms from India at Blackburn Register Office.
She earned about £10,000 for each illegal ceremony.
Immigration officers involved in the two year operation say each of the weddings could have cost the taxpayer a million pounds.
Officials used a 'plant-pot' camera at one register office in Blackburn to catch the sham marriages as they took place.
Armed with marriage certificates the grooms could then apply to the Home Office to regularise their stay in the United Kingdom and obtain benefits.
Ringleader Lorero's who disguised herself with a number of wigs pleaded guilty to planning 10 of these illegal marriages.
Loraro was jailed for 3 years and 9 months - 11 others were sentenced to a total nearly 15 years.
The grooms will be deported when they're released.
A Vietnamese nail bar owner who was the "spider at the centre of a web" of sham marriages is on the run, a court heard today
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