A bogus groom has been jailed at Leeds Crown Court for 12 months after plotting to stage a sham marriage.

Just days before the planned wedding, 23-year-old Shola Bansi Yaya – a Nigerian illegal immigrant – and his fake bride Adejumoke Ariyeye, 24, were arrested as they arrived at church for a meeting with the vicar. The marriage was stopped after an investigation by the UK Border Agency immigration crime team revealed that fake documents were being used in the marriage plans.

Yaya and Ariyeye, together with 20-year-old Portuguese accomplice Maria Da Grava Correia Tavares Da Silva, were sentenced today for arranging the fake marriage that would have enabled Yaya to apply to take up permanent residence in the UK. Yaya and Da Silva had already pleaded guilty, while Ariyeye, a Nigerian who was in the country legally, was found guilty at court last month.

Yaya was jailed for 12 months. Da Silva and Ariyeye both received suspended 12-month sentences.

The court heard how Yaya, who entered the UK illegally in 2003, approached the vicar at St Peter’s Church, Morley, Leeds in October last year to make arrangements to marry Da Silva. However, his marriage application aroused the suspicion of the Registrar to the Bishop and Diocese of Wakefield, who reported the marriage request to the UK Border Agency.

Officers from our immigration crime team launched an investigation into the planned marriage and discovered that many of the details and documents supplied by Yaya were falsified, including his UK address and immigration status. The court also heard that the woman Yaya had taken to meet the vicar was not Da Silva, but was Ariyeye who was fraudulently using Da Silva’s Portuguese passport.

A wedding date was set for Saturday 12 December 2009, but on Tuesday 8 December a staged meeting with the vicar was arranged by the UK Border Agency. When Yaya and Ariyeye (claiming to be Da Silva) arrived at the church, they were arrested by officers from the immigration crime team. Further investigations by the team enabled them to trace Da Silva to an address in London, where she was arrested on 20 January this year. She admitted becoming involved in the scam after she had been offered £500 in exchange for her identity documents.

In interview, Yaya claimed he was introduced to Da Silva in London and then paid £3,000 to arrange a sham marriage to the Portuguese woman. He claimed that Da Silva had subsequently refused to take part in the marriage unless she was given more money, at which point it was arranged for Ariyeye to act as a stand-in.

Jeremy Oppenheim, regional director for the UK Border Agency, said:

‘The UK Border Agency successfully thwarted this attempt to gain illegal residency in the UK by means of a sham marriage. The case demonstrates our determination to take action against those who try to falsify marriages in order to gain entry to the UK.

‘We have specialist teams of immigration officers and police working side by side to investigate and prosecute cases just like this and ensuring people are not able to benefit from breaking the UK’s immigration laws.’

Detective Inspector Don Newlove of the UK Border Agency immigration crime team said:

‘This is one of a number of successful prosecutions into sham marriages carried out by the UK Border Agency North East, Yorkshire and Humberside immigration crime team.

‘This clearly demonstrates the effectiveness of police and immigration officers working together to tackle immigration crime.’

The Immigration Rules now encompass changes from the Tier 4 review, including the rules governing the new Highly Trusted sponsor licence. Only sponsors who hold a Highly Trusted sponsor licence can now offer the following courses, known as ‘restricted courses‘, to Tier 4 (General) students:

• courses at National Qualifications Framework (NQF) level 3 or equivalent; and
• courses below degree level that include a work placement (other than foundation degrees, which can still be offered with a work placement by any Tier 4 (General) sponsor).

Education providers who hold a standard Tier 4 sponsor licence can only offer courses at or above NQF level 4 or equivalent. And they cannot offer courses that include work placements unless those courses are degree-level courses or foundation degrees.

(A foundation degree is a programme of study which leads to a qualification awarded at a minimum of level 5 on the revised National Qualifications Framework by an English higher education institution with degree-awarding powers, or awarded on a directly equivalent basis in the devolved administrations. In Scotland, a Higher National Diploma at Level 8 on the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework is equivalent to a foundation degree.)

If a student is studying a restricted course at an institution that does not hold a Highly Trusted sponsor licence, they can continue to study at that institution until they complete their course of study or their permission to stay under Tier 4 expires, whichever is sooner. If a student wants to extend their stay to complete their studies on an affected course, they must do so at an institution that holds a Highly Trusted sponsor licence.

Transitional arrangements for education providers

Publicly funded institutions that were deemed to hold a Highly Trusted sponsor licence on 6 April 2010 are now listed as ‘Highly Trusted’ on the Tier 4 register of sponsors, pending their application for a Highly Trusted sponsor licence. If they do not apply by 30 June 2010, they will lose this status and will be unable to access the Highly Trusted sponsor benefits from 1 July 2010.

If your institution did not qualify for automatic inclusion as a Highly Trusted sponsor and is currently an A-rated sponsor, you may want to apply for a Highly Trusted sponsor licence. If you make this application by 30 April 2010, you can continue to offer restricted courses until 30 June 2010 or the date when your application is decided, whichever is sooner. If you do not apply for a Highly Trusted sponsor licence by 30 April 2010, you will not be able to offer restricted courses to Tier 4 (General) students after 1 May 2010.

Update to bulk data transfer functionality

Bulk data transfer is a facility that allows Tier 4 sponsors to transfer data in bulk from their own student record IT systems to our sponsorship management system. The facility’s functionality has now been enhanced.

Visa letters have become obsolete

From today, all potential Tier 4 students applying to UK from inside or outside the UK must use a confirmation of acceptance for studies (CAS) in their application. All applications that do not contain a CAS will fall for refusal.

Sponsors will need to provide all potential students with a CAS reference number and sponsor licence number (SLN). Sponsors will also need to give students all the information they will need when making their application. This information may include:

• student name;
• student date of birth;
• course title;
• course start and end dates;
• details of any financial sponsorship or deposits taken;
• documents that should be included as part of an application to prove qualifications;
• CAS number; and
• ATAS certificate (if appropriate).

This additional information will help the potential student to complete their application correctly.

If a prospective student has a visa letter issued before 22 February 2010, they can no longer use it to apply for a Tier 4 student visa. If you have issued a visa letter to a student who is intending to apply to UK, you must replace the visa letter with a CAS. For out-of-country students, the date of application is the date when the application fee is paid – so a prospective student must be in possession of a CAS if they are paying their application fee today or later.

Mandatory reporting on students who have been assigned a CAS

Sponsors now must report via the sponsorship management system (SMS) on students who have used a CAS in an application to us.

Before you can issue CASs to migrants, you must have performed the transition exercise on the SMS.