GRASPING Polish girls are making easy money with phoney marriages to illegal immigrants desperate to stay in Britain.
Bogus brides demand up to £8,000 to wed the foreigners - who can then remain in the country to sponge off benefits or live on the proceeds of organised crime.
A People investigator posing as an illegal Albanian migrant easily found FOUR attractive Poles willing to marry him - at a price.
Sham weddings mean quick cash for girls from Poland and other east European countries such as Slovakia and Lithuania who come to Britain legally as EU citizens - then fail to get a job or are too lazy to work. Shadowy middlemen put them in touch with non-EU nationals who are here against the law - or the girls simply find the men for themselves.
The couples slip abroad to wed away from the scrutiny of UK authorities.
Anyone marrying an EU citizen gets the right to stay here - and rip off taxpayers. Ruthless Albanian gangsters are among those using the scam, which could also be exploited by terrorists.
The People discovered the shocking extent of the racket, which is thriving after a Home Office crackdown on marriages of convenience in Britain.
WANNABE BRIDE No 1: Nanny Katarzyna Machnio, 22, was ready to go through with a sham ceremony without even telling her builder boyfriend. "He'd kill me if he found out," she joked.
Our undercover reporter took Katarzyna to London's Oxford Street to try on bargain wedding dresses. The brunette brazenly admitted she would wed a stranger for only £3,500.
She produced a handwritten contract reading: "Marriage is only on paper. We don't have to live together." Katarzyna begged for £200 in advance.
WANNABE BRIDE No 2: Katrina Kowalski, 22, is Katarzyna's best pal. The would-be model, thinking our reporter was spoken for, asked him to find another Albanian willing to pay her to be his bride.
Katrina joked: "If your friend is rich I will charge him more - maybe £4,500. Why not? This is business."
WANNABE BRIDE No 3 also had a brisk business-like attitude. Blonde Agnieszka Zientarska, an IT student at Westminster University, emailed our investigator with a contract for awedding after their second meeting.
It said: "The service costs £6,000. The first part of £4,000 will be paid in cash on the day of thewedding and the remaining £2,000 will be paid in cash after six months of marriage."
Agnieszka, 20, later said she had changed her mind about marrying.
WANNABE BRIDE No 4: Regina Jedrzejko, a younglooking 41-year-old divorcee, wanted £12,000 to marry but later agreed to £8,000.
Regina, who was a teacher in Krakow, has struggled to find work since coming to Britain eight months ago.
She spoke to our reporter through a translator at a coffee shop near her home in Wood Green, north London. Then she bombarded him with texts askingwhen the deal would be done. One message said: "Can you pay for my hair to be cut please? I know a cheap place. I want to look good for the wedding pictures."
The People learned that middlemen use adverts in shops and local newspapers to set up bogus marriages.
The Asylum and Immigration Act has made it harder for foreigners from outside the EU to wed in the UK. Before 2005 they only had to turn up to a register office to marry a Brit or EU citizen.
Now they need Home Office permission first. As a result, registrars report a drop in sham marriages from 3,700 in 2004 to fewer than 300 last year.
But our investigation shows how illegal immigrants and crooked EU nationals beat the crackdown by marrying in one of their home countries. A Home Office permit to stay in the UK is then a formality.
Hanna Zawisza, of the Polish Consulate in London, confirmed that the number of Polish women marrying non-EU foreigners has soared rapidly in recent months. She said: "We are not allowed to check if these marriages are because of love or for money."
The British Embassy in the Albanian capital of Tirana revealed that more than 500 Albanians applied last year for visas to stay in the UK after marrying an EU national - and 411 were granted. Officials suspect most of the marriages were bogus.
When we confronted Katarzyna about offering to get married, she said: "I did not know it was illegal. What will they do to me? Will they charge me or something like that?"
Katrina was unavailable for comment. Agnieszka said: "I did not get married. Have you seen anyone get married?"
Regina had trouble understanding English and said: "Please text me." Lin Homer, director general of the Border and Immigration Agency, said officials had not noticed a trend towards more bogus marriages. She said: "If this situation changes we are ready to act immediately."
