1:28pm Thursday 29th July 2010
© Press Association 2011
A vicar has been found guilty of conducting hundreds of sham marriages to help illegal immigrants gain residency in Britain.
The Rev Alex Brown, 61, conducted 360 fake ceremonies at the Church of St Peter and St Paul in St Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex, between July 2005 and July 2009.
Co-defendant Vladymyr Buchak was also convicted at Lewes Crown Court of conspiring to breach immigration laws by paying Eastern Europeans up to £3,000 each to marry Africans, mainly from Nigeria.
They were caught after the UK Border Agency investigated the bogus marriages.
The jury is still deliberating on a third defendant.
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