Partner jailed for £20m fake marriage racket
Scam would have been 'obvious to a child', judge says
Tevfick Souleiman, partner in North London firm Souleiman GA, has been jailed for ten years for his part in a £20m immigration fraud.
According to a report in today’s Daily Telegraph, Souleiman arranged around five fake marriages a day, for which he charged up to £14,000.
Husbands were mainly from Turkey, Bulgaria, Pakistan and Albania and included members of the Albanian mafia. The fraud was only uncovered when police investigated a £1bn cocaine shipment organised by the Albanian mafia.
Judge Bevan told the Old Bailey that brides were brought in on a “conveyor belt” from EU countries in the Baltic, and from Bulgaria and Romania, to marry illegal immigrants.
Souleiman was said to have provided fake documents such as statutory declarations that marriages were genuine, tenancy agreements and references.
Judge Bevan said: “There must be scores of such people in the country, many of whom will be imposing their wholly undeserved burden on hard-pressed taxpayers.”
He sentenced Soulieman to 10 years for conspiracy to breach immigration law by arranging sham marriages from August 2004 and February 2012, and receiving the proceeds of crime.
Immigration advisers Cenk Guclu and Zafer Altinbas were found guilty of the same offences. Judge Bevan said the frauds would be “obvious to a child” but the UK Border Agency was under so much pressure that rules had to be changed and amnesties granted.
A spokesman for the SRA said: “We were waiting for criminal proceedings to take their course before deciding if any action of our own needs to be taken.”
Souleiman G.A is listed on the Law Society’s ‘find a solicitor’ database as offering litigation, property and family services as well as immigration from an office in Palmer’s Green. The firm has one other partner, Hassan Emir. There is no suggestion he was involved in the marriage scam. The languages spoken are Turkish and Greek.