Vicar jailed for sham marriage scam

The Rev Canon Dr John Magumba was officiating at so many weddings involving foreign nationals his diocese put him in charge of a special working party on how to handle marriages for foreigners – and how to spot sham weddings.

Sham weddings usually involve EU citizens marrying non-Europeans so they can gain the right to live in the UK.

In fact father-of-six Magumba, originally from Uganda, “asked no questions” when marrying a stream of Nigerian men and eastern European women who began flocking to his parish in Rochdale, Greater Manchester, from across the UK to celebrate their “happy day”.

The 58-year-old even told local churchgoers that African worshippers did not feel comfortable around so many white parishioners so he set up separate “African services”.

Read more: Vicar jailed over bogus marriage scandal

Churches saw the number of weddings increase after Magumba became the team vicar for St Mary’s in Rochdale, St Peter’s in Newbold and St Luke’s in Deeplish.

The 58-year-old pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to one count of conspiracy to facilitate a breach of UK immigration law by a non-EU person.

He has also admitted two counts of theft from his church councils by not declaring income from weddings and funerals, comprising of the theft of £5,400 from St Peter’s and a further £2,908 from St Luke’s.

Magumba showed no emotion as sentence was passed at Bolton Crown Court after he admitted carrying out 28 sham weddings.

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  Vicar jailed over bogus marriage scam

  07 September 2010