Sham marriages have earned two Algerian men and two Czech women prison sentences totalling five years today.
Katerina Gaborova, 28, got married to Fateh El Fiad, 38, in Middlesbrough while Zdenka Sudikova, 22, wed Mahrez Benbetka, 28, for the men to gain the rights of EU citizens.
The two men were jailed for 18 months each - but the men were not at Teesside Crown Court today to hear the sentence as they absconded halfway through their trial and are still on the run.
If caught, the fugitives will face automatic deportation.
The women were jailed for one year each.
Sentencing the four, Recorder Henry Prosser said: “I am satisfied that this was a commercial enterprise.
“There was no love or affection between the parties to the marriage.
“They were strangers to each other at the time of the marriage and I’m satisfied that the marriages were entered into for the purposes of financial gain, both to enable the men to obtain work in this country and to remain here indefinitely.
“I am satisfied that there was a significant degree of organisation that went into the commission of these offences.”
He told Teesside Crown Court the four were in contact with a network allowing non-EU citizens to pay for sham marriages with EU citizens.
Jailing the women, Recorder Prosser said: “I am satisfied that each of them would have expected to be paid for taking part in this marriage.”
Prosecutor David Brooke told how the Middlesbrough Register Office registrar had no legal right to stop the nuptials, but reported concerns over the validity of both marriages.
No communication, interaction or affection was seen among the couples and it was suspected that they had been “coached”.
Each of the women said they had met their partners in a coffee shop months earlier.
Gaborova paid for bakery worker Sudikova to fly to this country from Prague in May 2013 for the fake marriage.
Sudikova married Benbetka, an overstayer on a six-month visa, on September 24, 2013.
She told investigators Benbetka proposed unexpectedly, she knew he was an illegal immigrant and she was happy about the marriage.
In text messages the two, of Abingdon Road, Middlesbrough, asked questions about each other’s families to prepare for discussions with the registrar.
Gaborova and failed asylum seeker El Fiad, both of Ayresome Park Road, Middlesbrough, got married six days after Sudikova and Benbetka on September 30.
The bride was photographed in her wedding dress outside Middlesbrough register office, in front of the courthouse where she was later convicted.
Suspicions arose as El Fiad did not appear to know his fiancée’s full name.
El Fiad said he had been refused asylum and claimed he had married another woman according to Islam in London, from whom he had separated.
Both marriages went ahead despite arrests and interviews by immigration officials weeks earlier.
And the men both applied for residence on the back of the marriages in late 2013.
Gaborova lived on Egerton Street, Middlesbrough with her partner - another man - and their two children. She told investigators she was going to marry behind his back.
The four all denied the charges and were convicted in two trials.
The two men disappeared in the middle of the first trial in October last year, and have still not been found.
They were convicted in their absence of obtaining leave to enter or remain in the UK by deception.
The women were found guilty by a jury of assisting unlawful immigration to an EU state after a second trial in January.
None of the four had previous convictions. Barristers for two missing men said their motivation was simply to enable them to work.
Nigel Soppitt, for the two women who still maintain their innocence, said they were wrongly influenced or guided by others
He said: “They took a great risk for scant reward.
“These are two young women who have been very foolish.
“They may have been tempted by some easy money by somebody else and they’ve fallen into that temptation not thinking of the consequences.
“These two young ladies are well down the pecking order, the bottom rung or thereabouts.
“It seems they’ve done as they’ve been told to do for a limited period of time. These two have been wholly dispensable.
“They can only do this sort of thing once since they’re now legally married. It must be an isolated incident.”
He added Gaborova had worked long hours tirelessly since coming to the UK and a prison sentence would profoundly affect her children, one of whom has a kidney disorder.
He said a deportation order for the women would be ineffective since, as EU citizens, they could return to the UK at any time.
Mr Soppitt asked the judge to consider suspended sentences, but Recorder Prosser said it had to be prison to deter others.
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