Sham marriage halted hours before ceremony

Sham marriage halted hours before ceremony

28 March 2012

A BALLYNAHINCH couple held hands in the dock of Downpatrick Crown Court as they escaped a jail sentence for their part in a sham marriage last year.

Polish nationals Zanete Bednarska and Grzegorz Gonda were given six-month suspended sentences at Thursday’s sitting for conspiring to assist a Pakistani man to unlawfully remain in the United Kingdom.

UK Borders Agency officials detained the pair just 24 hours before 18 year-old Bednarska had been due to marry Imran Javed at Newtownards Registry Office on August 19 last year.

The Crown Court was told that Bednarska and Gonda were in a relationship and had been living together as partners in a house in Carryduff. Javed was their lodger.

Thirty two year-old Javed was in the UK on a student visa which was about to run out so he persuaded Bednarska to ‘marry’ him in a sham ceremony which would allow him to remain in the country.

After some initial resistance to the plan, Gonda agreed to be the witness to the ceremony.

The court was told Javed’s

student visa was issued to him after he claimed to have won a place at a college in North London which Borders Agency officials later discovered did not exist.

A prosecution lawyer said Javed travelled to Northern Ireland but there was no evidence that he did any studying in the Province or in London. During questioning he eventually admitted the sham marriage arrangement, but gave very few details about his activities after arriving in the UK.

Defence counsel, Mr. Alan Blackburn, who appeared for Javed and Bednarska, said

the girl had been persuaded to

go along with the “naive marriage” scheme by Javed and that she in turn had convinced her partner.

He said immediately after being arrested she gave full and frank admissions of guilt and was very remorseful. He said Bednarska, who lives at Windmill Lane with Gonda, was a hard working woman who came to Northern Ireland with her parents six years ago and was a former pupil of Ballynahinch High School.

He said Javed, who has been in custody since being arrested in August, came from a respected family in Islamabad and his father was a driver for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He said Javed had a Masters Degree in Business Administration from a Pakistani university.

“He has brought a great deal of hurt and shame to his family. He has lost his self respect, lost his liberty and is going to suffer the indignity of being deported,” said Mr. Blackburn.

Gonda’s barrister, Mr. Paul McAlinden, said his client came to Northern Ireland in 2006 and had been in full time employment throughout his life and has never claimed benefits.

“He was against this sham marriage but was persuaded to go along with it by his partner and Javed,” said Mr. McAlinden. “This really is at the lower end of the scale for such offences.”

Judge Jeffrey Millar said it was accepted the case was lacking in sophistication or sinister motive.

“This was a foolish and misguided affair on the part of Bednarska and Gonda,” said Judge Millar.

Javed was jailed for 16 months and Judge Millar said it will be up to the Home Secretary to decide if he should be deported. “There was no evidence put forward about what studies he was carrying out or why he was in Northern Ireland,” said the judge.

Bednarska wept quietly and Gonda reached over and gripped her hand when Judge Millar announced he would suspend their prison sentences.