Vicars held in 'fake wedding racket' are suspended by Church of England

From The Daily Mail-

Two Church of England vicars have been suspended after they were arrested for allegedly running a bogus marriage racket in their inner-city parish.

Reverend Brian Shipsides and his colleague Reverend Elwon John spent a night in custody after being arrested.

They are accused of attempting to carry out the allegedly sham marriage of a Nigerian man to a Dutch woman at an East London church on Saturday morning.

Yesterday, as the men were released on police bail, Border Agency officials combed the marriage registers at their two churches and seized documents from their homes.

They were looking for evidence that the clergymen may have helped more migrants get married solely to remain in Britain.

The arrests come just a week after another vicar, Reverend Alex Brown, was found guilty of carrying out the country's biggest ever sham wedding racket, in St Leonards, East Sussex.
Border Agency officials arrested the Nigerian, 27, and the Dutch woman - a 23-year-old mother of one - at All Saints church in Forest Gate just before they wed.

The church was empty apart from the 'couple', a 30-year-old Nigerian woman witness and Mr Shipsides, who was initially dismissed as an innocent dupe to the scam.

But after questioning the ' couple', Border Agency officials went to the vicars' homes on Tuesday to arrest Mr Shipsides, 54, on suspicion of conspiracy to breach immigration law and attempting to pervert justice, and Mr John, 43, on suspicion of conspiracy to breach immigration law. They were later suspended by the Church.


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