Vicar charged over illegal immigrant sham marriages

A vicar was charged yesterday with two offences related to helping arrange 180 "sham marriages" that helped illegal immigrants stay in Britain, the UK Border Agency and police said.

They said the Reverend Alex Brown, 60, from St. Peter and St. Paul Church, in Saint Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex, had been charged with conspiring to aid unlawful entry.

He was also charged with "solemnising a marriage according to the rights of the Church of England" without banns of matrimony being published.

He remains in custody and will appear at Hastings Magistrates Court on Thursday, the UK Border Agency said.

The vicar was arrested along with two other men and a woman in dawn raids on Tuesday by police investigating a suspected large-scale bogus marriage ring in parts of East Sussex.

The woman and one of the men have been bailed pending further enquiries. The fourth man remains in custody.

The Border Agency's Detective Inspector Andy Cummins said the arrests were part of an 18-month probe "into allegations that nearly 180 sham marriages had been arranged at the local St Leonards church".

He said the bogus marriages appeared to be linked to allowing non-European Union nationals to stay in Britain and Europe. A spokesman for the agency said the suspected scam centred on eastern European migrants, who were legal, marrying west African nationals.

A Chichester diocese spokesman said the vicar had been suspended from duty following his arrest.

A 32-year-old Ukrainian man and a 27-year-old Latvian woman, believed to have been one of the brides, were both arrested on suspicion of facilitation offences at an address in Hastings.

A 36-year-old Armenian man was arrested in Hastings for the same offence.

A commercial premises which offers advice and translation services to the Eastern European community was also searched as part of the operation.