The Sham Marriage Racket (Immigration Law Documentary) | Real Stories

tonight we're investigating sham marriages would be available may have 10,000 up we penetrate the criminal gangs making millions of pounds who we are told are trading in human beings as new laws to tackle sham marriages are introduced we're inside one of Britain's busiest to register offices I've had a call to say that immigration offices are in our car park so I go down the back of my office their chance for the animatics surprise but despite the promised government's crackdown filming undercover we will reveal an illegal industry operating with utter contempt for the authorities what we did why not get slow I know and we confront the racketeers just want to ask you how long you've been setting up fake marriages for money for you know black males illegal though you wallet it's criminal and it demonstrates how big a scale of the problem we we face as Britain takes an increasingly hardline approach to immigration there remains one massive loophole marriage many who wish to remain in the UK are paying thousands of pounds for fake brides and grooms to get a British passport it's been going on for years but in an effort to stamp out sham marriages in March this year the government introduced strict new rules so we're setting out to investigate whether this crackdown will work or whether it's just business as usual for the racketeers we begin our investigation here in one of the busiest register offices in the country Brent in West London we start off filming in February a month before the new laws are due to come into effect service operational manager Mandy Brahma and senior registrar Nisha Turnbull have been taking notices of marriage Nisha has just interviewed a same-sex couple increasingly it seems people are using same-sex marriage confident that registrar's will not want to be accused of homophobia but Nisha and Mandy are suspicious afraid to section 24 what was the section 24 among the notice they're just very suspicious to me before any couple can get legally married in most cases they must give notice at a register office this is often the only chance to spot a sham marriage the registrar's have just one short interview with each couple they have no power to stop a marriage but if they believe a couple isn't genuine by law they're meant to submit a section 24 report to the Home Office but their job is getting more difficult it becomes harder and harder to detect it's much more sophisticated now before you knew outright if you had an interpreter for one and an interpreter for the other then how do they communicate you get the age-old we don't need English or words to communicate absolutely it's now just one week until the law change the same-sex couple returns to the Register Office for their wedding registrar Anna is keeping tabs on them as a result of Nicias report and immigration enforcement team is coming to intercept the couple before the ceremony are you the groom where's your partner is he coming have you got witnesses it's okay yes still early it's essential the couple don't know the officers are waiting for them I've had a call to say that immigration officers are in our car park so I go down the back quite honestly in France for the element of surprise it's a lot of steps there's four people downstairs so duties they there that i'ma turn sit on even though I know he was very nervous I'm gonna go and get the I know bring them up Anna brings the unsuspecting couple upstairs they're taken to separate rooms and immigration enforcement start what could be hours of interrogation two hours later and Ana has just received word the immigration officers have finished the interviews okay registrar's in this office hope the new laws will stop these disruptive raids from now on everyone no matter what their status will have to wait a month between giving notice and getting married anyone without a European passport or permanent residency in the UK will also be referred to matically to the Home Office and could face an investigation of up to 70 days this should mean that fake couples are stopped well before their wedding day today I had to ask the UK border police to close the blinds every time I went past you know the he was just staring at me because he knew I did the paper like we are according to the Home Office's own figures up to 10,000 sham weddings could be happening each year but we're told this could be a gross underestimate so we're going to start our own investigation to find out just how easy it is to arrange a sham marriage and to see for ourselves if the tough new laws are really going to work we start by looking online we find adverts for marriage bureaus and dating agencies one sticks out it says it can help fix up marriages for people on student visas we also find adverts placed by people looking to marry so they can stay in the UK we put up our own advert for a Pakistani called Ali in fact our undercover reporter almost at once we get an unsigned email from someone offering a British girl willing to marry for money so Ali decides to make contact he's going to pose as a foreign student from Pakistan desperate to find a way to stay in Britain before his visa runs out almost immediately we got a response meanwhile Ali has also come across an outfit that describes itself as a marriage bureau but what kind of marriage exactly the woman in charge introduces herself as amber okay you can find a girl for you if you're interested in marriage he is going to be Congress then you tell me what you want - exactly - do you want to go ahead with the girl for a paper marriage or you want to live with her for what struck me quite strongly from our experience so far is that despite what you read law is being changed quite dramatically in a way to try and stop these things from happening actually we found two different methods two different sets of people with no fear for the law absolutely yeah you're right taking part in or organizing a sham marriage is illegal but despite this and the impending government crackdown for the two fixers Ali has contacted it seems to be business as usual a week before the law is due to change Ali is going to Northampton to meet Chris the emailer who says he's got a British girl lined up to enter a fake marriage he's been asked to bring 200 pounds in cash as a deposit he's been instructed to wait outside the train station suddenly a man appears how's it going Chris you sure today or not Chris introduces Ali to Sarah the fake bride she's got two young children with her Chris boasts that he's done this before Chris tells Ali he'll have to pay 2,000 pounds which he will split with Sarah Chris tells Ali it'll be easy and risk-free he's got a cover story the couple can use to fool the authorities someone needs some work I take alleys undercover footage to Nazir Afzal an eminent lawyer he spent 12 years as a director and later a chief prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service that's just completely cotton fabrication of a marriage he clearly is not your organized mr. big however he has access to people he knows the people that are desperate for a visa whatever it may be it brings them together ultimately he'll make money out of it all of its criminal just two days after the trip to Northampton Ali's in West London on his way to meet the second sham marriage outfit amber the woman from the so-called marriage bureau she tells Allie to wait outside a tube station amber pulls up in a white Mercedes and hurriedly asks Ali to get inside there's a man with her who she introduces as her husband Akbar they start speaking in Urdu as soon as Ali's phone is switched off the couple immediately get down to business they say they've got a girl for him and she's got a British passport will be available initially cannot pay another processor clearly which may have 10,000 making up front knee ups upfront rc5 language 5 Djibouti registration hold a gauge above cost and pluck a passport officer Jenkins they tell Ali the girl is unemployed any British citizen marrying a foreign national should be earning over eighteen thousand pounds for their spouse to get residency in the UK after their wedding but that's nothing to worry about they say because they have an accountant who will Forge pay slips and tax returns documents according to the requirements hand appear the visa refusal sovaldi better sitting in their big white Merc amber and Akbar coach Ali in the other tricks they used to fool the authorities good optically coughs up a 300 pound registration fee and they drop him back at the tube station in the space of just 72 hours he's been offered to fake brights nausea afzal has dealt with numerous cases involving sham marriages and criminal gangs this couple he says look like big players some of money involved you know ten thousand pounds when there abouts we're talking about millions of pounds being made by people like her or others based on a practice which is criminal there's no two ways about it it's now early March and a new law has just come into force it automatically refers anyone without a European passport or British residency to the home office who now have 70 days to investigate suspicious couples but will it make any difference to the racketeers our undercover reporter Ali is returning to Northampton for his second meeting with Chris the marriage part is a simple process holders have to emerge by the citizens if there's anything might be 70 days two months so soft and what it looks or investigations are they do so then how are we going to make sure that our background over the next hour Chris guides Ali and his bride-to-be Sarah through their cover story he tells Ali that despite being from different backgrounds he's confident that they won't be asked any tricky questions the thing is that she's British about Saudi and under face of it it you know it seems like a relationship that stands out as far as as far as missing irreligion that is very it's so touchy they are scared to bring it up it's not PC it's not something different chris says once Ali is married he cannot be forced to leave the UK he boasts about his excellent track record after agreeing their cover story Chris takes the couple into the pub garden to take some photographs all right kids chris says they don't look relaxed enough I could build a house there but like all right kiss me on the cheek or something you weren't happy but suddenly Sarah seems to be getting anxious Chris starts explaining why they have nothing to worry about but someone else walks past Sarah's right to be worried if she and Ali are caught attempting to go through with a sham marriage they could both face criminal charges for perjury and breaching immigration law Chris tries to calm her if if she was polish yeah that'd be a lot more suspicious and dodgy but she's British what we're doing right now to get slaw chris says he'll book an appointment for Sarah and Allie at the Northampton registry office to give their notice of marriage he says he'll be in touch again in a week he's right I suspect our questions wouldn't be asked people these days are less likely to ask those kinds of questions because they don't want to be accused of being racist or religiously discriminatory the saddest thing is we the British taxpayer the public lose out and that can't be right I'd never imagined that it was happening in Northampton so if it's happening in the East Midlands where isn't it happening a few days after the meeting in the pub Chris demands Allie pay more money up front if he wants the deal to go through Allie returns to Northampton this time chris turns up on his own Sarah's not there he says she's still on board and despite the new rules he's confident they'll get their application waived through and will be able to marry in about four weeks time so I don't see not changed as a term aha so there's a lot of change it's only adjust the time period yeah there you go so that's just the conclusion yeah it's just a time period it's nothing else that's the perception and the perception has to change with some real robust action but that's gonna take long a long time because you know we've had years and years of lacks controls which have enabled people to breach them almost you know on a daily basis some people might say is sham marriage that bigger problem when we've got other things to deal with you know limited resources it's a massive problem because the moment you you are able to go through a marriage ceremony you access everything this country has to offer whether its benefits are free health service our free education system Ali returns to Northampton for a fourth time he's expecting to meet Chris and Sarah again to rehearse their cover story but there's no one there instead he gets a text message it says it's from Sarah and that someone she knows has found out about the sham marriage the conversation takes a new turn it seems that Ali's being blackmailed on his way back to London Ali starts getting a series of threatening emails suddenly he gets a PayPal demand for 200 pounds the messages say Ali has until the next day to pay up or he'll be reported to the police in the days that follow he gets an increasingly desperate stream of messages from Chris then it goes quiet and the messages stop we send one final email and suddenly we get a reply chris says he will meet he says Ali will have to hand over the blackmail money he asks Ali to meet him outside a train station but this time we're following right behind hi Chris I'm Ranveer Singh from ITV exposure she want to ask you how long you'd be setting up fake marriages for money full yeah you have you've been asking for two thousand pounds to set Ali up with Sarah yeah we've got we've been filming you for about three months we've seen everything you've been saying to him did Sarah get upset about breaking the law is that why you started to blackmail Ali you know illegal don't you in response to our allegations Chris told us I did not organize or arrange a sham marriage I did organize meetings with Ali for my personal gain but I was only giving him my personal opinions and did not contact the authorities the woman identified as Sarah was merely present as a friend made no money from this and does not share my opinions we also tried without success to contact Sarah it's early April and the new rules have been in force for a month in Brent head of registration services mark Rimmer and his deputy mandy brahma were expecting to see a drop in the number of people coming in to give notice of marriage particularly as they've been so proactive at reporting couples in the past in fact they've been as busy as ever people are being cut off that's a slight concern if I was in the Home Office in the last month in brent of the 300 notices they've taken nearly a hundred couples have been referred automatically to the home office but it appears only 16 have been checked so far their concern the home office doesn't have the resources to investigate this huge number of couples they would have been looking at hardly any before well you can imagine if it's 99 in one district of London for one month just over a month they're going to be looking at well many many thousands of you mandis also discovered that people are finding ever more sophisticated ways to evade the new rules I'm just reading up on an email that's come through some Intel from the home office she's discovered that an Indian man has obtained a fake Belgian passport and is trying to register a marriage with a Romanian woman this means as they will appear to be two European nationals they will not get referred to the Home Office for investigation people know that a European national is not going to be challenged in the registry office I don't understand how they think that it's not going to be challenged though in the Immigration Service people will chance it they will just chance it coming up Akbar the marriage bureau boss boasts to our reporter Ali that he can organize a fake Muslim marriage the nikah and these fixers lead Ali even deeper inside their criminal underworld despite tough new rules being introduced our undercover reporter Ali has already been offered one fake bride in North Hampton he's now on his way to meet the second offered to him for 10,000 pounds by fixers amber and Akbar they pick him up and drive him to a local restaurant they introduce him to dehii de his potential fake bride akbar boasts of his bureau's track record in the fake marriage industry your success rate for goods and services they tell Ali his bride Zahida will transfer her bank statements and other posts to his address the couple go on to explain other ways they will make the relationship look genuine yes again the recent change in the Lord doesn't bother them at all it's a couple acrylic they also say Ally will be able to get out of the marriage just as easily as he's getting into it they've been careful to pair Ally with someone from the same religious and ethnic background one of the increasingly sophisticated ways they're staying one step ahead of the new law follow you funny game they put you be near your not scandalous the idea that at the moment you submit your marriage papers we also prepare your divorce papers is really worrying that they think that they will carry on regardless of the regulation changes it's seven days later and Ali is on his way back to Hounslow for his third meeting with Amber and Akbar they're covering their trail like spies using a different car and driving him to a different location for each meeting they boast about another sham marriage they're setting up the woman involved is an illegal immigrant a Hindu so Akbar is fixing her fake wedding in a temple registration they tell Ali that the temple is being paid five hundred pounds to host the sham ceremony and they go on to boast about another illegal sideline to their business what we are become was that the passport live under their efficient economy aha OHP Espanyol you tell you do like original original report make it impossible to believe ambassador Akbar shows Ali two of the fake passports he says they're all registered at the proper embassies so can be used for traveling in and out of the UK but suddenly there's a problem Ali's told Zahida 'he's insisting she get her first five thousand pounds before going any further Ali says he's worried she won't go through with it cheese hot solid okay jeez man you know what if I'm not going to be cared about it seven days later Ali is told that Zahida won't go ahead because she hasn't got her first payment of five thousand pounds so he returns to Hounslow to meet amber and they say they've got a solution they agree to speak again soon but not before once again showing how little they care about the government's new crackdown so soft they tell Ali they arrange as many as four sham marriages every month if 10,000 pounds is being paid out for each of these weddings this couple of their associates could be raking in nearly half a million pounds a year across the country sham marriages could be generating millions for the fixers lawyers accountants and religious institutions and the true cost to the taxpayer is likely even higher Ali gets a call from amber she's been in touch with the so called supplier Ali meets me straight afterwards this is the phone call that I got from the girl but he will have to pay is that word supplier that sends chills down your back because it suggests that it's an item is not a person they're literally selling a woman to you absolutely all this sounds like it's taken an even more sinister turning that everything you're saying sounds very much like human trafficking oh is that how it felt to you when she said that you can take her passport take her documents and then the girl is yours pairing them explain exactly how this will all play out was in fact quite chilling coming up Ali comes face to face with the supplier I can't get over their their language they use about the woman as if she's absolutely nothing it's bitterly shameless and we confront the racketeers we're investigating the underground industry where criminals are making millions of pounds setting up sham marriages forging passports and what appears to be offering human beings for sale our undercover reporter Ali is off to Hounslow seasons marriage fixes amber and Akbar meet him at a tube station and take him to a nearby supermarket carpark they tell him about the man they refer to as the supplier of young and the woman from the supplier Ali's told appears to have little choice about taking part in this illegal sham marriage we're in different different geography jashub tomorrow jicama slaw Nikolai it is co cotton child paper Gemma Karabakh elder will go Janaki miss nebula IC ke kanaka sorry conquering the yellow K there was present ready ever saw quick Holly is told he will pay ten thousand pounds to malloc the supplier for the girl as well as the fee of eight hundred pounds to amber and Akbar amber says they will also get money from the supplier as a commission when the deal goes through suddenly the atmosphere changes Malik is here and he has a woman in his car how are you everybody good alligator Julia his car has no number plates removed perhaps to ensure they're not caught on the supermarket CCTV Ali is told he will have just a few minutes to talk to her while they sit in the front of the car Malik and Akbar stand guard outside amber watches from the back seat how old are you okay so why did you move to London after just 10 minutes Malik takes Julie away we don't know any more about Malik than amber and Akbar tell Ali but they claim he's in a different league Ali is now deep into the underground world of the criminal gangs that seemed to be running rings around the authorities this couples attitude to the law despite the recent changes is shocking even more so because their business according to them involves a trade in human beings nazarov cell has spent decades tackling forced marriage and the abuse of vulnerable people in his role as a chief prosecutor for the cps if Amber's description is correct he has grave concerns I can't get over their language they use about the woman as if she's nothing absolutely nothing it's literally shameless according to her the woman is puppet and she is brought in with 10 or 15 20 people at a time you know it's wholesale human trafficking the criminality goes way beyond just a sham marriage during our six-month investigation we found fixers and people apparently trading in human beings they're making millions of pounds at our expense and it seems they couldn't care less about the change in the law but the fix is providing the brides and grooms are only part of the story amber and Akbar have told Ali they work with accountants and solicitors who are facilitating sham marriages by forging documents and sending in false applications to the home office if what this couple say is true these professionals are not only breaching their own strict codes of conduct they're also breaking the law so Ali is going to go undercover again to find out just how easy it is to find someone willing to break the rules his story is that his visa is running out and who wants to stay in the UK some tell him unless he is in a genuine relationship they can't take him on as a client but with all too many others Ali's camera captures a different story this is ma consultants in Whitechapel East London alley meets immigration adviser Osman Malik if I you know I can manage to convince a European national yeah deny me further just for the reason of the paperwork then would you be able to help me out yeah brilliant and then I guess and then exactly what would all will you do so you compiled the paperwork Bosman malik says he's happy to take Ali on as a client though wars that if Ali's caught he could be deported next Ali visits solicitor mr. Naqvi in Southall West London his fees are fifteen hundred pounds I believe the made obviously genuine relation Inga dang it I didn't marry cream and that make me too long hey lucky you just met Chris we just whatever just the services yeah regardless regardless of whether the relationship is genuine oh not me and inconvenient omniscient man we believe in your declaration finally Ali visits dennings in East London and meets solicitors efika Ali his fees are cool two thousand pounds what if I pay someone to marry me would you want to help me out have you done this before do you have experience I mean we also showed the footage of these meetings - Nasia Ave Sal yes he's outlined the risks attached but he hasn't identified what he is doing which is a facilitating a crime for him it's question of see no evil hear no evil the individual has told them he doesn't want to go to my genuine marriage see no evil hear no evil doesn't work they could be conspiring with that individual to facilitate their immigration or breach of the immigration rules which is a criminal offence there can be no real doubt as to what he is say to the individual concerned we're talking potentially criminal behavior and not just simply breaches of disciplinary codes mr. Esmond malik told us i have no recollection of the meeting and must have understood this to be an arranged marriage both he and ma consultant said they would not knowingly breach immigration law assist others to do so or breach their own professional codes of conduct ma consultants added they have suspended mr. Malik and ordered a full investigation and notified the office of the Immigration Services Commissioner mr. Malik is a junior advisor not a partner and his views or advice are not representative of the firm mr. Naqvi told us I made my position clear with your reporter I did not turn a blind eye to a sham marriage I have practiced as a lawyer since 1993 and have an unblemished record I come from a culture where arranged marriages are the norm I was making my position clear and that was that any marriage entered into had to be genuine we also wrote to dennings about our undercover evidence they replied that it did not carry less than 500 volt shocking capacity they were surprised that an experienced solicitor like self iike Ali would conduct such irresponsible representation and advice and they would investigate suggesting it should be reported to the regulator mr. Ali who now runs his own practice told us at very early stage I guess that he was undercover I knew that he was not a real client but a fake one I had no intention to take instructions from him or to act on his behalf I do not take cases where there is no merit in the case or someone instruct me to act against the law our investigation has revealed that illegal immigration via the sham marriage industry far from being under control seems to be booming Ali's been offered several fake brides and assistance from lawyers and immigration advisors meanwhile amber and Akbar de fixes in Hounslow continue to pursue Ali they say their supplier needs a deposit to hold the girl he's waiting for them again at the tube station amber and Akbar meet him in a different car and drive him to a cafe they're in a good mood and can't resist telling him why they say the girl came from Malik and tell him more about the groom Ali hands over his deposit of 500 pounds and asks how the rest of the how do you become alert amber and Akbar remain on Ali's case and ask him to meet them again they pick him up in a different car and immediately get down to business they say that Malik has been in touch they still think they have nothing to fear but what they don't know is that we're right behind them I'm promoting the exposure I'd like to ask you some questions about setting up illegal marriages no it's okay amber an out bar we know what you've been doing we've been filming you for three months and we've seen all the illegal things you've been doing so I'd like to I'd like to ask you some questions about the guilt that you might have about selling vulnerable women into illegal marriages no we know all about it you're denying it are you what do you do for a living them what's your a how do you make all the money how do you make all your money then goes really and what about the fake passports that we saw in the back of the car at bar that you showed to Ali what about those the Ali that you came here to meet today we've been filming you for three months we know exactly what you can do you've been speaking about a woman called Julie haven't you who you were trying to sell for ten thousand pounds through mr. Malik oh you know me you don't know mr. Malik at all no what is the procedure how can I help you what is the proof just I just want to talk to you about gonna come through the legal process whatever you want to do send me the notice of our I'll come yeah and what about em so he'd can I just ask you do you feel any guilt whatsoever about selling Julie and calling her a puppet you don't have any guilt about that you don't feel bad about that Julie we know that you met her and you made Ali meet her in a car we know what you've been doing in response to our allegations solicitors representing amber Akbar Zahida and Malik confirmed that none of their clients had given our reporter Ali their real names and that they were all legitimate hard-working members of society they said amber and Akbar aka zeyneb Hawaiian and Hawaiian Ramzan ran a legitimate marriage bureau until december 2014 sahie de a que hace Hamad is a part-time admin staff member and mr. Malik a cake a chef Akhtar is a team leader in a higher car company they told us their clients fabricated and exaggerated information to go along with Ali as they suspected him from the outset of trying to set them up and they wanted to find out why it was their intention on obtaining his identity to report his conduct to the police they said that Zahida had also provided false details to Ali as she suspected he was trying to set them up a home office spokesperson said the criminal gangs who try to cheat their way around our immigration laws will not escape justice the Immigration Act which became law last year gives us much stronger powers to identify disrupt and deter shower marriages in the last year we intervened in more than 2,900 suspected sham marriages double the number from the year before and since March when our new powers came into effect we have made more than 230 arrests and removed 150 people from the UK immigration enforcement offices are working closely with registrar's to ensure the referral process runs smoothly the majority of decisions to extend the notice period are now made within a week of the couple giving notice registrar's are also notified so they know how many cases the Home Office is investigating we are also providing our evidence to the police despite the government's crackdown and the best efforts of registrar's up and down the country our evidence suggests it's business as usual for the racketeers can anything be done to truly tackle the sham marriage industry it can't be just a policing issue the answer lies in the communities themselves stamping down is because all of us everybody from minority backgrounds gets tired with this brush most of them probably get away with it to be perfectly frank with you and I think they will continue to do so irrespective of whatever legislation any government introduces whilst there is a gain to be thought from the marriage they'll always be racketeers willing to try and circumnavigate immigration rules

Channel: Real Stories

Views: 1,005,315

Keywords: sham marriage, how to buy your way into britain, how to buy your way into britain documentaery, how to buy your way into britain documentary, sham marriages documentary, fake marriage documentary, sham wedding, Real Stories, Documentary, Real Stories Full Documentary, TV Shows - Topic, Full length Documentaries, Real Stories Documentary, legal documentary, Documentary Movies - Topic, Immigration law, anchor babies uk, anchor babies documentary, Anchor babies full documentary

Id: OutNNbD6lfE

Length: 49min 24sec (2964 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 11 2018