A vicar has spoken out against foreign 'couples' who are targeting churches in Northampton for sham marriages.
Four people, all foreign nationals, were each jailed for two years last week after admitting trying to dupe the Rev Michael Hills, of Holy Sepulchre Church, into marrying them.
Mr Hills says he has seen at least three weddings in his churches raided by immigration officers as couples were about to tie the knot. Another five couples have been arrested as they arrived in Northampton to sort out the wedding paperwork.
The bogus weddings are typically between an illegal immigrant from Africa and a non-British EU national.
Speaking to the Chronicle & Echo, Mr Hills said sham marriages "took advantage of the church" and said vicars now had to be extra vigilant.
He said: "About a year ago we started to get lots and lots foreign weddings, particularly from Nigerian people who were marrying Eastern Europeans. Eventually what happened was the police turned up at Holy Sepulchre and arrested one couple.
"It was found their passports were false and they had also given me false bills to prove their address."
He added: "I think there are some pretty desperate people out there really. They will do anything to stay here basically. It is upsetting."
Mr Hills, who is vicar of both Holy Sepulchre and St Michael's Church, in Northampton, said changes may be needed inside the Church to clamp down on sham couples.
Traditionally the Church has checked the validity of marriages by asking the parish congregation on three successive Sundays and then again on the marriage day if they know of "any lawful impediment" why a couple cannot be married.
However, Mr Hills said: "It is very difficult to do that now, especially in towns when people don't know each other as they used to. We are not equipped to say whether a passport or a household bill is false or not.
Asked about the two year sentences handed down on Friday, he added: "I think it is fair enough.
"They are taking advantage of the system. If they are going to come and tell lies they are going to have to face the consequences, especially if they are telling lies to the church."
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A speeding hit-and-run driver was seen ‘laughing and giggling’ as he fled after a crash in which a young dad died.
Zaffer Kurshid, 21, was doing 70mph in a 30mph zone when he hit Robert Allen, then drove away leaving him for dead.
He was jailed for four years at Bolton Crown Court.
Witnesses said Mr Allen, 36, of Bedford Street, Bolton, was thrown more than 40 yards when he was mown down on Chorley New Road. He died at the scene.
Kurshid was described by a judge as an ‘impatient and frustrated driver’. He passed his test just four months before the crash last October.
The court was told that he has a previous conviction for driving without a licence.
Kurshid’s brother Asad, 24, who owned the powerful Volvo S60 involved in the collision, was given an eight-month sentence, suspended for two years, after he pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice.
The court heard that he created a fake receipt claiming the car had been sold when he heard what had happened.
Disqualified
He devised the ‘short-lived’ scheme in panic because having a previous conviction for driving while disqualified, he believed officers would think he was the driver, it was said.
Both brothers, who live on Kilnhurst Road, Bolton, handed themselves in hours later.
Zaffer Kurshid, who was in the car with a girlfriend, pleaded guilty to causing death by dangerous driving. He was also banned from the road for six years.
Peter Barr, prosecuting, said Mr Allen, who had a daughter, was returning from an off-licence with his dog when he was struck.
One witness told police: “The car looked as though it was flying.” A driver who saw the collision stopped and called police and paramedics. Mr Barr said another witness saw Kurshid and a girlfriend getting out of the vehicle after he abandoned it near the Bolton School. He said the witness saw them ‘laughing and giggling’.
Jailing Zaffer Kurshid, Judge William Morris said: “You were responsible for this tragic death. You were speeding and travelling at 70mph. You admitted that you did so for the excitement.”
His brother Asad was also ordered to complete 200 hours’ of community service.
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Britain boasts one of the world’s freest and most transparent electoral systems. But is is being slowly and steadily undermined and abused, particularly by Muslim immigrant communities.
...........................Cultural Enrichment™ Alert – The BBC seems to think it’s some kind of quaint ethnic custom, but in a serious development today in arguably one of Britain’s most corrupt constituencies, yet more evidence is surfacing that electoral fraud (particularly that relating to postal votes) in Bangladeshi and Pakistani communities in Britain is becoming widespread; as this breaking story illustrates:
Scotland Yard has launched criminal investigations into four allegations of bogus voter registration. Bundles of fictitious names have been put on the electoral roll in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in what looks like a blatant attempt to steal the elections.
It will raise concern in an area notorious for election fraud and where a last-minute flood of applications to vote mean that more than 5,000 have been accepted without any checks — enough to sway Thursday’s results.
The council tried to clean up the register. Officials visited any home with nine or more voters and removed 141 names from the roll. But a surge of 5,166 new registrations were received just before the deadline of April 20 and there was no time to check them. Alarm bells rang when parties were given lists of postal voters to help with electioneering.
At an address in Bethnal Green Road consisting of a ground-floor shop and an upstairs maisonette, eight Bengalis claimed a postal vote. However, when The Times called there this week there was only one occupant, Inge Reekmans a Belgian photographer. “You’re kidding,” she said when told about the registrations.
Showing The Times around her home, the only other occupant was her cat Kiki. “You can see, there are no Bengalis,” she said. In Goldman Close, there were 10 Bengali names for a house where Stephane Leyvraz, a Frenchman, lives with two Europeans. When The Times visited, there was no sign of “Tanzir Alam”, “Nurul Aman” or the others. A man came for the ballot papers on Monday.
Across Tower Hamlets in Bromley-by-Bow, 18 people apparently requested postal votes in a four-bedroom house where Ali Saleem, a Pakistani student, lives with four companions. Does he vote? “Not even in my own country,” he said. “I don’t like to vote.”
The Electoral Commission’s Code of Conduct for postal voting forbids campaigners from soliciting ballot papers. But Mahmodul Hasam Talukdar was asked for his by a party supporter. “He said ‘Vote for us and I will take it back to the post office’,” Mr Talukdar, 23, a student from Bangladesh, said. “Why should I? It’s my vote.”
Britain boasts one of the world’s freest and most transparent electoral systems. But is is being slowly and steadily undermined and abused, particularly by Muslim immigrant communities.
In 2007 the Joseph Rowtree Foundation, an independent organisation which promotes electoral reform and democratic rights, said:
“several cases [of electoral fraud] have involved proven instances of large-scale vote-rigging within British Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities. There is some anecdotal evidence to suggest that practices associated with traditional forms of Pakistani ‘clan politics’ have been a common factor in a significant minority of recent prosecutions for electoral fraud”
In Slough, Berkshire last year, Six British Pakistanis were jailed for postal vote abuse.
In an earlier case in Birmingham in 2005, local elections were voided and had to be re-run at a massive cost to the taxpayer, as several Pakistani candidates were found to be operating what was described as a ‘vote-rigging factory’.
The judge commented on government claims at the time that postal voting was working:
“Anybody who has sat through the case I have just tried and listened to evidence of electoral fraud that would disgrace a banana republic would find this statement surprising.”
But as we often say here at Un:dhimmi, it is unfair to transfer all the blame to the miscreants. Equally culpable are the enablers – and here it is once again the political class in the UK, who still maintain that the lax security arrangements in British elections (particularly those around postal voting) do not require reform.
It is clear that a workable alternative to postal voting has to be found, or locked-down arrangements to protect abuse of postal voting from Britain and abroad put in place; and that in-person voters should have to identify themselves to electoral offices, which, bizarrely, is not currently the case in Britain.
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UPDATE: according to the Express & Star the plan to build the mega mosque in Dudley HAS BEEN SCRAPPED.
REPORTS are coming in that the English Defence League has occupied the rooftop of a derelict building in Dudley earmarked for a mammoth new mosque.
The group staged a daytime protest in the town on Easter Saturday to show their objection to the planned new place of worship - and almost immediately afterwards supporters said a return visit was already being planned.
Around 20 EDL members, with their faces covered, are reportedly involved in the protest, which has been advertised on the group's page on social networking site Facebook.
An eyewitness said: "They're waving England flags and blaring out Islamic music from a loud speaker."
The EDL's website says the protestors "have food and water to last them weeks, and a pa system to give speeches".
It adds: "I believe they even have a Playstation. They will be playing the call to prayer to let those who are not bothered by this mosque know what to look forward to."
Police and fire crews - however - have arrived at the scene and sealed off Hall Street in the hope of achieving a swift end to the protest.
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Last Updated ( Monday, 03 May 2010 13:38 )
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A MAGISTRATE is at the centre of a noise row after prayers were broadcast over speakers at a charity event at his home.
Police attended the exclusive detached house of Zah Hussain in Meins Road, Blackburn, after complaints from neighbours.
Around 50 people were at the event which saw prayers and hymns broadcast inside the house for 90 minutes.
But some nearby neighbours said the sound levels disturbed the peace of the sunny, Sunday afternoon.
Mr Hussain, a local JP, said he and his wife were ‘very upset’ by the complaints.
It was the third year the family had staged the event, which is led by a specially-invited Imam from India, and raises money for the country’s poor.
Mr Hussain, the marketing director at a pharmaceutical firm, said: “A man turned up on my doorstep and said ‘Sunday is a Christian day. What is all this noise. We don’t want it here’.
“This is a cultural issue, not a noise issue, and it creates a sense of division.
"Being a magistrate, I know what noise pollution is and I wasn’t breaking the law.”
However, Tony and Wendy Egerton, of nearby Carrs Wood estate, described the noise as ‘horrendous’.
Mrs Egerton said: “We were trying to sit and relax. You don’t get too many days as nice as it was on Sunday.
“I rang the police and they said it was nothing to do with them, it was down to environmental health.
“We are not racist, we get on with everyone. We just wanted the peace and quiet that you expect in your back garden.”
“But it was like living outside a mosque.”
Mr Egerton said: “It is nothing to do with cultural issues.”
The couple are now to make a formal complaint to the Environmental Health department.
Another resident, who confronted the Hussains, denied telling Mr Hussain that Sunday was a Christian day.
He said: “Each to their own, but I told them that the rest of Blackburn didn’t want to hear it.”
A police spokesman confirmed they received a call about music and advised the caller to contact Environmental Health.
A spokesman for the council's Environmental Health department said no official complaint had been received.
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Police are investigating after youths set fire to an England flag at a pub and shouted racist abuse at the pub's manager.
Jan Roehrig, of The Black Boy, in Albion Street, Leicester, found the flag outside the pub was on fire as he closed up at 11.45pm on Sunday.
Mr Roehrig said: "It had been hanging above the door and was in flames. There was a group of Asian lads running off. They shouted racist abuse at me."
Police said they were investigating the damage and were also looking into the racist element of the incident.
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A POLISH community leader has branded comments made by Lib-Dem leader Nick Clegg that Inverness needs more overseas workers as "irresponsible".
With the election battle intensifying ahead of polling day on Thursday, Inverness Polish Association chairman Zosia Wierzbowicz-Fraser stepped into the row over remarks made by Mr Clegg during an interview with Jeremy Paxman on BBC TV earlier in the campaign.
Outlining his party's immigration policy based on a regional points system, Mr Clegg cited Inverness as one of the areas needing migrant workers. He claimed there was "a very clear consensus among everybody that they need people to come into that part of the country in order to work".
His comments were supported by his chief-of-staff Danny Alexander who is defending the Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey seat.
But Mrs Wierzbowicz-Fraser yesterday criticised the remarks. "I feel at this time, in the context of Inverness, it was an irresponsible statement," she said, stressing her association was non-political.
She estimates there are about 4500 to 5000 Poles in Inverness and Ross-shire and when asked whether more migrants should be encouraged to settle in the area she replied: "Absolutely not. There is not enough work to go around.
"The kind of work which is offered is temporary short-term work and there is also difficulty in obtaining accommodation. There is basically very little council accommodation available."
She added there were "tremendous numbers" of Polish graduates working as cleaners, waiters and waitresses and kitchen porters.
Conservative candidate Jim Ferguson, who has spoken to Mrs Wierzbowicz-Fraser, holds Mr Alexander responsible for Mr Clegg's comments. He maintained Mr Alexander was out of touch with the feelings of the local migrant population, many of whom were losing their jobs and having difficulties in finding and paying for accommodation.
"What on earth is Mr Alexander doing telling his party leader and writing the party manifesto and saying Inverness wants and needs more migrants?" Mr Ferguson queried.
He said there were just over 10,000 people on the housing waiting list and he did not want people blaming migrants for a lack of jobs, housing or health care.
"I have been saying we need a common sense and properly-managed migration policy not only for those outwith the EU but also for those in the EU," Mr Ferguson added.
But Mr Alexander last night accused the Conservatives of scaremongering and said the Lib-Dem view on immigration was that it should be based on differing economic needs in different parts of the country.
"I think the Conservative party is highly irresponsible and completely misleading," he declared.
"What we want to do - which the Conservatives have never recognised - is understand that different parts of the county have different needs.
"I know there are posts unfilled in the National Health Service, for example. Our policy might well mean that we would ensure particular needs in the Highlands were met.
"In other areas we would equally be able to say we would not need additional migrant workers."
* Former Lib-Dem Leader Charles Kennedy, who is seeking re-election in Ross, Skye and Lochaber, and ex-Inverness Provost Alan Sellar joined Mr Alexander aboard a vintage MacBrayne's bus at the weekend for a tour of both constituencies.
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Several hundred black and asian trade unionists will be heading to Merseyside for the 2010 TUC Black Workers' Conference this weekend and three days of lively debate on a key range of topical issues from the impact of future cuts in public spending to the dangers posed by the rise of extremist political parties.
Addressing the conference later today (Friday), TUC Deputy General Secretary Frances O'Grady will warn that when even progressive politicians talk tough on immigration, there is a danger that this panders to the worst instincts of the right wing media and plays into the hands of the racists and right-wing extremists.
As part of her speech to the conference, Frances O'Grady will say: 'The Far Right poses a real threat to the cohesion of Britain's many diverse communities, with organisations like the BNP seeking to profit from both economic uncertainty and public disillusionment at mainstream politics.
'Politicians who play the race card should hang their heads in shame. The recession wasn't caused by workers born in India, Somalia or Poland coming to Britain in search of a better life. It was caused by bankers in the City and on Wall Street in pursuit of their own greed.
'In this climate racist attacks continue to take place. This week a new report from the Institute of Race Relations - released to coincide with the 17th anniversary of the death of black teenager Stephen Lawrence who was murdered on the streets of South East London by racist thugs - showed that black and asian minicab drivers, shop workers and takeaway owners face the highest risk of violence.
'And only last year in this very building, Gee Walker gave an enormously dignified address to Congress about the murder of her son Anthony, killed in a racially motivated attack in Liverpool five years ago.
'Meanwhile Nick Griffin is contesting the parliamentary constituency of Dagenham in the coming General Election and hoping to become the first fascist MP in the House of Commons in living memory. Similarly in the local elections also taking place on 6 May, the BNP is banking on taking control of the borough of Barking and Dagenham and becoming the largest party on Stoke-on-Trent City Council.
'Against this backdrop, it's the duty of every one of us to try to stop the hate-mongers in their tracks, to mobilise against the racists in our workplaces and our communities, and to alert our colleagues, friends and neighbours to the threat to democracy and community relations that is posed by the Far Right.
'The message is simple, people must use their vote and use it wisely because the BNP's biggest friend is apathy. Just as in last year's European elections when the BNP won two seats, not voting means someone else's vote counts double, and that person could be voting for the BNP.
'From Dagenham to Dudley, Stoke to Sunderland, Barnsley to Burnley, we must make sure voters say no to the BNP, no to fascism, and no to the politics of hate.'
The 2010 TUC Black Workers' Conference takes place in the BT Convention Centre in Liverpool from 2pm on Friday 23 April. The debates will conclude at lunchtime on Sunday. Other speakers over the three days include TUC President Dougie Rooney and Rob Berkeley, the director of the Runnymede Trust.
Motions submitted for debate in Liverpool cover a wide range of issues including the impact that large cuts in public spending might have upon black workers, the discrimination faced by many black and Asian jobseekers, and how to encourage the media and legal professions to become more representative of the many diverse communities in the UK.
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