Gypsy ‘weddings for profit’ across Yorkshire and the north

They acted as “fixers” for the so-called couples - mostly eastern Europeans to illegal west African immigrants - among them Oladatun Ogundari and Alena Kurejova, Josef Badzo and Mercy Idehen, Omorodion Idehen and Kristin Makarova, and Adeboyega Adekunle and Ingrid Gulasova.

Kurejova, 35, from Bradford, walked free from court last April after she gave details of the “broker” who arranged her wedding in 2009 at St Peter’s Church in Accrington.

The married Slovakian mother-of-four was paid £950 to wed Ogundari, 31, and claimed she had done so because she needed the money and her children had not eaten for days.

Ogundari told detectives he had used his life savings of £6,200 to pay for the sham marriage.

He produced a fake passport and documents falsely stating the couple were living in Accrington when they applied for their marriage licence.

Ogundari, of Bellhouse Road, Sheffield, was jailed for 15 months.

Kurejova was given a 52-week jail term, suspended for one year, at Burnley Crown Court.

Married Nigerian couple Omorodien, 42, and Mercy Idehen, 44, of Scarborough Street, Moston, Manchester received the same sentence as they also co-operated in the prosecution of the fixers.

The illegal immigrants, who have three children, took part in bogus weddings in 2009 at St Peter’s Church in Accrington and at All Saints Church in Clayton-le-Moors.

They said they paid £9,000 in a bid to stay legally in the UK but the idea was suggested to them by others.

Polish national Badzo, 40, of Spencer Road, Bradford, was jailed for 16 months last November for assisting unlawful immigration.

He also acted as a witness to the sham marriage of his girlfriend, Maria Pretzynska, 54, also of Spencer Road, to Lukman Duroyaye, 43, at St Peter’s Church in Levenshulme, Greater Manchester, in December 2008.

Pretzynska was also jailed for 16 months and Duroyaye, of Hessel Street, Salford, was sentenced to 28 months.

Cina also admitted being a witness at the same ceremony.

Mother-of-six Gulasova, 39, of Roundthorn Road, Glodwick, wed Adekunle, 37, at St Andrew’s Church in Accrington in 2009.

Adekunle, of Brookhills Close, London, was jailed for 21 months and Gulasova received a 14-month sentence.

Burnley Crown Court had heard the ceremony was arranged by a “broker” Adekunle met in London.

All the Nigerian nationals who have been sentenced over the scam were told they faced deportation at the end of their jail terms.