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Four men and a woman were arrested on suspicion of marrying off vulnerable Glasgow women, including drug addicts and prostitutes, to Africans wishing to stay in Britain. The members of the gang were seized in a series of dawn raids early yesterday in Paisley, Cambuslang, London and Reading, Berkshire.
The 6am swoop came after a seven-month investiga- tion into "dozens" of bogus marriages between Scottish women and men from Ghana and Gambia.
It is understood the inquiry was started by a tip-off at the general register office. The "brides" are all from the Greater Glasgow area.
The gang is thought to have charged thousands of pounds a time to arrange a marriage.
The African men would marry in Scotland but would immediately return to London.
They would file for divorce after two years when they were granted indefinite leave to remain in the UK.
| In some cases, the couples met on the steps of the register office |
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Phil Taylor, regional director of the Border and Immigration Agency, a new Home Office agency, said: "We believe that this is one of the most significant sham marriage scams in recent years.
"Research suggests the men involved are from a limited number of countries in western Africa. Our inquiries are continuing and registrars have helped identify some potential marriage scams.
"We believe this type of activity has been going on for several months in Scotland."
Three of the people arrested yesterday were Scottish. Two were West African.
A 27-year-old man was held in Cambuslang, while a 26-year-old woman was detained in Paisley. Another Scot, aged 22, was also held in connection with the operation.
Similar raids were carried out in Reading and the Thornton Heath area of south London and, as a result, two people from West African were detained.
More than 30 officers from the Border and Immigration Agency (BIA) and Strathclyde Police raided the Scottish properties as part of a wider BIA campaign, called Operation Warren.
Mr Taylor, who is in charge of the BIA in Scotland and Northern Ireland, said that the operation was continuing and was targeting "significant" numbers of people.
"We believe this is done mainly for money. Some of the people who are being used as the spouses do have records of vulnerability in relation to lifestyle. In some cases, the couples meet on the steps of the register office."
It was the fact that the couples clearly knew very little about each other that alerted staff at register offices.
The five people detained were yesterday expected to be charged with various offences under the Immigration Act and the Birth, Deaths and Marriages Act. All five, including the two men arrested in England, were to be questioned by police officers in Paisley.
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