Rev Canon Dr John Magumba didn't even bother to hold sham weddings for fake ... - Daily Mail

By James Tozer

Last updated at 6:21 PM on 26th January 2012

Disgraced: The Reverend Canon Dr John Magumba was jailed at Bolton Crown Court for conducting 28 sham marriages

A vicar who conducted 28 sham weddings enabling immigrants to claim hundreds of thousands of pounds in benefits was jailed in disgrace yesterday.

The Rev Canon Dr John Magumba, 58, pocketed at least 8,300 in return for marrying Nigerians to Eastern Europeans living in Britain.

In reality, the unions were cynical ploys organised solely to enable the Africans to claim residency in Britain and have access to benefits.

A court heard the cost to the taxpayer of one immigrant wrongly entitled to services including education and the NHS amounted to a 'colossal' 100,000 over a decade, or 230,000 if they had a child.

Yesterday the Church of England vicar – who came to Britain from Uganda along with his wife and six children and oversaw three parishes – was told he had brought scandal to his church and shame upon himself as he was jailed for two-and-a-half years at Bolton Crown Court.

Investigators suspect no ceremony actually took place for many if not all the weddings, with the 'couples' simply given their marriage certificates – dubbed 'golden tickets' – after handing him hundreds of pounds.

On one occasion he married the same woman to different men twice in the space of a week, later changing her age in the church register to try to avoid suspicion.

So many foreign couples tied the knot at his churches that the local diocese made him head of a committee aimed at detecting sham marriages – while all along being a prolific offender himself.

They invariably involved Nigerians seeking to remain in Britain marrying Eastern Europeans who already had residency here, with the immigrants paying as much as 7,000 to fixers.

Magumba claimed to have conducted the first out of compassion because he had been told the bride was HIV positive and needed to stay in Britain to receive NHS treatment.

Ill-gotten gains: The vicar pocketed at least 8,300 from carrying out bogus weddings at churches including St Lukes in Deeplish, pictured

But he admitted that it had quickly dawned on him that the couples were bogus, breaching a raft of Church regulations including failing to ask to see their passports, make home visits or read out the banns.

One Nigerian woman took part in ceremonies seven days apart, prompting a local church official to demand why she had married two men in the space of a week.

'He said they were twins, and in some African countries twins were given the same name,' Joanna Rodikis, prosecuting, told Bolton Crown Court.

Magumba then tried to cover his tracks by crudely altering her age in one of the entries from 28 to 38.

Investigators suspect she paid for two weddings to enable her to build up a second identity if she was exposed as an illegal immigrant.

The vicar was first interviewed as a witness by police as part of an ongoing investigation into sham marriages, one of which had taken place at one of his churches, St Peter's in Newbold, Rochdale, Greater Manchester.

Fakes: Magumba also staged sham weddings at nearby St Peter's Newbold Church in Rochdale, Greater Manchester

Detectives quickly realised he had been more than an unwitting dupe when he claimed to have visited the couple's home – which turned out to be a bogus address.

Checks revealed that while there had been no weddings at all at the church between 1996 and 2007, over the next four years after he took over there had been 21.

Yet none of the fees he charged – at least 250 per ceremony – had made it into church accounts.

On one occasion, he claimed to have conducted two weddings in the space of a few hours – but a charity coffee morning had been taking place at the church at the time, proving no ceremonies had been conducted.

Some marriage certificates have never been traced, while the 'stubs' in the register are blank, suggesting he handed them over for fraudsters to fill in themselves.

Magumba is even suspected of pocketing money from funerals, none of which reached church funds.

In total, he carried out 31 weddings at St Peter's and nearby St Luke's, Deeplish, of which 28 were bogus, pocketing at least 8,300 from the couples.

Shame: Magumba 'brought scandal to his church', the judge told him as he was jailed

Yet the once-respected trained Christian counsellor – who came to Britain in 2004 – repeatedly begged for money from parishioners, pleading poverty.

Yesterday his barrister, Hunter Gray, said in mitigation: 'He has spectacularly fallen from grace. One day in prison is going to be too much for him.'

Magumba – who claimed to have held the marriage ceremonies in secret - showed no emotion as he was jailed after admitting conspiracy to facilitate a breach of UK immigration law as well as two counts of theft.

Judge William Morris told him he had brought scandal to his church and let down both his family and his parishioners.

'What you did repeatedly amounted to very serious breaches of the immigration laws of this country properly designed to prevent those with no entitlement to reside in the UK from doing so,' he added.

'Whatever your motive for facilitating the fraudulent entry into this country of these individuals, neither you or anyone else in your place, can place your conscience above the laws of this country.'

Since Magumba's scam was exposed, clergy have been issued guidelines to weed out possible sham marriages after C of E ceremonies began to be exploited by fraudsters because they are less tightly regulated than their civil equivalents.

While the alleged fixer of the weddings is facing prosecution separately, the Nigerians are expecting to face deportation when they are traced.

As EU citizens, the Eastern Europeans they married – mainly Czechs, Slovaks and Poles – cannot be forced to leave the country.

Magumba, who is himself likely to face deportation proceedings on his release, is believed to be only the second clergyman jailed for such offences.

Last year Rev Alex Brown was jailed for four years after being found guilty of carrying out the biggest fake wedding scam Britain has seen.

He abused his position at his  Victorian parish church in the seaside town of St Leonards, East Sussex, to marry 360 illegal immigrants to complete strangers.

Magumba is currently suspended from ministry while his local church takes its own action against him.

A spokesman for the Diocese of Manchester said: 'Rev Magumba, as an experienced clergyman, was given responsibilities both in the parish and the diocese on trust.

'This trust was broken and the criminal activity was hidden.

'Problems such as this are very rare but, when they do occur, it is right that the courts deal with them appropriately.'

Dave Magrath, head of the UK Border Agency's regional criminal and financial immigration team, said: 'Our main aim is to identify the organisers who profit from and fuel the demand for sham marriages.

'In this case the key organiser was a church minister who was prepared to abuse his position — and the trust placed in him by the Church and his community.'
Immigration minister Damian Green said: 'Today's sentencing sends a clear message to anyone considering breaking our immigration laws that Britain is no longer a soft touch.'

Share this article: