Court told of woman's €2,500 'sham marriage'

A Co Louth woman was paid €2,500 to marry an illegal immigrant in the UK to help him avoid deportation, it was alleged in a court in England yesterday.

Ms Melissa Reilly (23), St Finian's Park, Drogheda, was said to have travelled to Worthing, in Sussex, last month at the request of an unnamed third party to participate in the "sham marriage" with Mr Orobola Osantuyi (34), from Nigeria. Ms Anne-Marie Devlin (29), also St Finian's Park, Drogheda, was said to have travelled with Ms Reilly to act as witness to the marriage.

Both have been charged with conspiring to make false statements to the registrar of marriages in Worthing, and conspiring to assist another person in breaching UK immigration laws.

Mr Warwick Patford, of the Crown Prosecution Service, told Chichester Crown Court yesterday Ms Reilly had admitted in interviews with police that it was a sham marriage.

The court heard a third party arranged to get a passport and tickets for Ms Reilly to travel to the UK, and paid her a fee of €2,500 to marry Mr Osantuyi.

Mr Patford said Ms Devlin claimed to have had nothing to do with the marriage but had merely accompanied Ms Reilly on what Ms Devlin described as "a nice trip to England for the day".

No pleas were entered in court for Ms Reilly or Ms Devlin.

However, a solicitor acting for them both applied for bail, giving the court an address for a relative of Ms Devlin in London and another for Ms Reilly.

Judge Anthony Thorpe adjourned the bail hearing until this morning, and the women were remanded in custody. He said he wanted the police to look into whether or not the marriage was a bigamous one.

At a previous hearing, the court heard that Mr Osantuyi, a Nigerian living in London, had outlasted his permitted stay in the UK, and as a result had tried to marry an EU citizen. It was claimed that he and Ms Reilly had visited Worthing registry office on June 2nd where they allegedly gave an address in Worthing.

Immigration officers were said to have checked the address and to have found it to have been a vacant property up for sale.

A solicitor for Mr Osantuyi yesterday entered a plea of not guilty for his client, who was also remanded in custody. A hearing on pleas and directions will take place on September 10th.