Eight sentenced after Gretna sham marriage scam
Eight people have been sentenced today after a sham marriage scam which was foiled thanks to arrests made at the registration office in Gretna.
The scam involved two former couples who swapped partners for the day to take part in separate sham marriages.
Michal Mankos and Katerina Gerychova agreed to help Pakistani couple Muhammad Hanif and Huma Aslam gain long-term residency in the UK.
They attempted to get married to each other's partners, travelling to separate register offices, in Gretna and Newcastle.
The authorities managed to arrest all four people before the marriages took place.
These CCTV pictures show Katerina Gerychova and Muhammad Hanif at the registration office in Gretna.
The couples had been introduced by sham marriage fixers Waseem Shah and Ivan Holub, who told them they could help bypass immigration laws.
Today (19 June) at Newcastle Crown Court, the couples and fixers were sentenced, along with co-conspirators Vladislava Mankosova and Simon Poliak.
All eight defendants had pleaded guilty to conspiring to facilitate a breach of immigration law at earlier hearings.
The full list of those sentenced:
Huma Aslam, 26, Stanley Road, Cheadle, Manchester – Two years
Michal Mankos, 24, Bamburgh Terrace, Byker, Newcastle – Thirty months
Katerina Gerychova, 24, Westbourne Avenue, Gateshead – Twenty months, suspended
Muhammad Umer Hanif, 23, Hampstead Road, Newcastle – Eighteen months
Waseem Abbas Shah, 30, Derby Court, Newcastle – Three years nine months
Vladislava Mankosova, 42, Fosse Terrace, Gateshead – Fifteen months, suspended
Simon Poliak, 19, Fosse Terrace, Gateshead – Thirteen months, suspended
Ivan Holub, 24, Ripon Street, Gateshead – Thirty three months