A PORTUGUESE man who lives in Harrow has been jailed for trying to arrange a sham marriage.
Claudio Cardoso, 34, played a key role in a failed attempt to create a phony relationship for Pakistani Shehzad Bashir in April last year.
At Harrow Crown Court on Friday last week, Cardoso, of Wesley Close, admitted conspiracy to facilitate a breach of UK immigration laws along with four identity fraud offences.
The court was told 27-year-old Bashir, who was in the UK on a student visa, had hoped to marry someone from the European Economic Area as a means of to gaining long-term residency and the right to work and claim benefits in the UK.
Cardoso, via a third party, had introduced Bashir to a Portuguese woman in March 2012.
The couple subsequently had photos taken together and opened a joint bank account in an attempt to generate evidence that they had a genuine relationship. They visited Kingston-Upon-Thames register office, although no marriage ceremony was ever booked.
Officers from the UK Border Agency’s criminal and financial investigations team arrested Bashir at his home in Manorgate Road, Kingston, on August 15 and Cardoso at an address in Edgware, on September 13.
Bashir had pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiracy to facilitate a breach of immigration laws at an earlier hearing, when he was jailed for six months.
On Friday, Cardoso was sentenced to two years and two months in prison.
UK Border Agency spokesman Paul Jepson said after the hearing: “Cardoso was at the heart of Bashir’s illegal attempt to extend his stay in the UK. He is now paying the price for his actions.”
