Scandal of parish vicar who staged 'conveyor belt of sham marriages'
A PARISH vicar presided over up to nine bogus weddings a day in a marriage ceremony scam where brides even wore the same dress, a court heard.
Eastern European women queued at the back of the Reverend Nathan Ntege’s “no questions asked” church ready to meet their African and Asian grooms for the first time, it was claimed.
Witnesses saw the fake Bulgarian brides changing in toilets to take part in a “conveyor belt” of sham marriages.
Immigration officials became suspicious after the number of marriages at
Ntege’s south London church rocketed from “six a year to six a day”, Inner London Crown Court was told yesterday.
Ntege, 55, from Croydon is said to have married 494 fake couples at the Church of St Jude’s and St Aidan’s in Thornton Heath, in the second largest sham marriage operation in British legal history.
The persons could go there with no questions asked. The weddings were farcical. Ntege and his team ran a marriage conveyor belt
The Ugandan-born vicar was helped by the church’s verger Brian Miller, 81, and secretary Maudlyn Riviere, 67, both from Thornton Heath – with the priest allegedly pocketing about £70,000 in wedding fees.
Galina Petkova, 52, of South Norwood, south London, and Georgia Forteath, 34, of Enfield, north London, deny recruiting the fake brides.
Prosecuting Edward Lucas said: “There were an inordinate number of marriages presided over by Ntege. In 2005 there were six marriages at the church, in 2010 there were 223.”
The scam involved EU citizens marrying non-Europeans, giving them the right to stay here, it was claimed.
Mr Lucas added: “This number of sham marriages does not take place by coincidence. The persons could go there with no questions asked. The weddings were farcical. Ntege and his team ran a marriage conveyor belt.
“This was a widespread abuse of the immigration system to ensure the illegal presence of foreign nationals in the UK. It was like a bus queue or cattle market. Brides wore the same wedding dress.
“Three wedding dresses and other bridal accessories were found at the vicarage where Ntege lived.”
The court heard Ntege should have paid £72,498 in wedding fees to the Diocese of Southwark but handed over only £3,000 and sent £55,000 to Uganda.
Miller lent the weddings “respectability” while Riviere collected the cash and filled in the register with false details.
The court heard on the day church and Home Office officials visited Ntege, he was due to conduct nine marriages.
Also on trial are Angela Palachie, 54, of Thornton Heath, and Innocent Odoh, 34, of Lewisham, who are both charged with entering into false marriages.
The seven defendants deny a total of 51 charges relating to immigration offences between December 2007 and March 2011. The trial continues.
