A vicar was found guilty today of conducting hundreds of sham marriages to help illegal immigrants gain residency in Britain.

The Rev Alex Brown, 61, conducted 360 fake ceremonies at the Church of St Peter and St Paul in St Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex, between July 2005 and July 2009.

Co-defendant Vladymyr Buchak was also convicted at Lewes Crown Court of conspiring to breach immigration laws by paying Eastern Europeans up to £3,000 each to marry Africans, mainly from Nigeria.

They were caught after the UK Border Agency investigated the bogus marriages.
The jury is still deliberating on the possible guilt of a third defendant.

During the seven-week trial, jurors heard that Brown presided over 383 marriages during the four-year indictment period, a staggering 30-fold increase on the 13 he had conducted over during the previous four years.

They were told that Buchak, 33, a Ukrainian national who had himself been living illegally in the UK since at least 2004, was responsible for 'cajoling and persuading' the Eastern Europeans into the marriages of convenience.

He preyed on migrant workers who were living in the area and were desperate to earn money by offering them large cash sums to wed Africans to allow them to obtain the documents to live and work in the UK.

Sham marriages: Reverend Alex Brown presides over one of the 360 weddings that allowed foreigners to remain in Britain

Deceit: The parties who agreed to marry foreigners for £3,000 often gave false addresses, records found

Jurors were shown photocopies of the marriage register at the church, which showed that 360 out of the 383 weddings during the period involved Eastern Europeans marrying African nationals, mainly from Nigeria.

It was also apparent that, of the hundreds of people who had got married, they all seemed to live in the surrounding streets of the parish, with 90 couples registered as living in one road alone and 52 in another.

In some instances there were even several brides and grooms claiming to live in the same house and jurors were told that most of those involved in the marriages had given false addresses.

Jurors heard that Brown was arrested on June 30 last year following a joint investigation by Sussex Police and the UK Border Agency, and both his vicarage home and the church were searched.

Church misused: Brown conducted the ceremonies at The Church of St Peter and St Paul in St Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex between July 2005 and July 2009

There they found documents he had doctored, including the church's electoral roll plus a second, altered copy, which he had filled out to hide the dramatic increase in weddings over which he was presiding.

Buchak was arrested the same day and identity documents belonging to some of the Eastern Europeans involved in the sham marriages were found in his home, while many of their numbers were found on his mobile phone.

He declined to give evidence in the trial, while Brown and the third defendant, solicitor Michael Adelasoye, 50, both denied knowing the marriages were false when they each took to the witness box.

After hearing the verdicts for Brown and Buchak, Judge Richard Hayward gave the remaining 10 jurors a majority direction as they continue to deliberate on Adelasoye.

By Daily Mail