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Vicar suspended over 'sham' marriages row
A vicar was charged last night with conspiracy to aid unlawful entry to the UK by helping to organise more than 180 "sham" weddings for illegal immigrants.
- Daily Mail
- Published: 22:48 July 2, 2009
London: A vicar was charged last night with conspiracy to aid unlawful entry to the UK by helping to organise more than 180 "sham" weddings for illegal immigrants.
The Reverend Alex Brown, 60, had been arrested in a dawn raid on his rectory home in St Leonards, East Sussex, and his church, St Peters, 200 yards away.
He is accused of holding a "conveyor belt" of services to allow African and Eastern European immigrants from outside the European Union to marry those with the right to stay in the UK.
It is claimed that many of the unions were merely marriages of convenience to give the immigrants residency rights.
The churchman has been the parish priest at St Peter's Church for 20 years. Police and immigration officials raided the church and his home just after 5am on Tuesday morning.
On Wednesday, a quickly scribbled handwritten note pinned to the front door of St Peter's read: "All appointments have been cancelled for the foreseeable future!"
Three other supects were being held yesterday; a 32-year-old Ukrainian man, a 27-year-old Latvian woman and an Armenian man, 36, who runs a translation service for Eastern Europeans.
Detective Inspector Andy Cummins, of the UK Border Agency, said: "The arrests follow an 18-month investigation into allegations that nearly 180 sham marriages had been arranged at the church."
A police source said: "We are now going to be looking into almost 200 weddings at Reverend Brown's church. To say St Peter's has been a busy place in recent months is an understatement."
A spokesman for the Chichester Diocese said: "It is with great sadness and regret that the Bishop of Lewes has received a report of the arrest of the Rev Alex Brown, the Vicar of St Peter's. The Church has been cooperating fully with the police and other agencies since the extent and seriousness of this matter came to light.
"The Bishop is concerned for the well-being of the congregation at St Peter's, who will be upset and hurt by the news.
"The Church requires high standards of its clergy. In that light, the Rev Brown has been suspended from his duties pending the outcome of the investigations."
Days before his arrest, Reverend Brown had announced in a local magazine that he intended to resign at the end of August.
He was pictured smiling in his church robes alongside a message that read: "It is with great sadness that I have tended my resignation to Bishop John of Chichester in order to move back to the North of England to be nearer to my family."
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