A Nigerian man has been jailed for 18 months after embarking on a sham marriage in a bid to remain in the UK illegally.

Idowu Olabamiji Yakubu, aged 34, was sentenced at Wood Green Crown Court on Friday (28 June) at the end of a 3 day trial. He had pleaded not guilty to a charge of seeking the avoidance of immigration enforcement action by deception, but was found guilty by a jury.

Yakubu had arrived in the UK in April 2010 on a student visa valid until August 2013 which allowed him to work a maximum of 20 hours per week. He consistently failed to abide by the terms of his visa, securing work variously as a hotel receptionist, a cleaner, a security guard and a builder.

Robert Braybrook, Immigration crime team, said:

'Knowing that he had no chance of extending his student visa, Yakubu decided to seek alternative means to secure his long term residency in the UK and in July last year he made a fraudulent application for leave to remain as the spouse of an EEA national.'

As part of that application Yakubu submitted a fake Nigerian marriage certificate showing he had married a Portuguese woman.

When our officers from the immigration crime team arrested Yakubu at his home in Mattison Road, Haringey, on 20 November last year they found no evidence of a subsisting relationship.

Robert Braybrook said:

'It was clear that he was living in his accommodation on his own. There was only 1 toothbrush and only men's clothes in the wardrobe. Despite his protests to the contrary it was obvious that the relationship he insisted was genuine simply did not exist.

'He had invented the relationship and embarked on the fraud in an attempt to avoid removal from the UK. He disregarded the immigration rules and then compounded his crime by failing to admit it.

'He has been handed a significant custodial sentence and will face removal from the UK when he has served his time.'

The operation involved seconded police officers working together with warranted immigration enforcement officers.

Nationally, the Home Office has specialist crime teams who are a mixture of immigration officers, police officers and customs officers working together to protect our borders and tackle serious and organised immigration crime.

UKBA.

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