UK investigates Ugandan priest over fake weddings

Mar 20, 2011

UGANDAN-born, Rev. Canon John Patrick Magumba is being investigated over claims that he facilitated bogus weddings.

By Sylvia Nankya and Agencies

UGANDAN-born, Rev. Canon John Patrick Magumba is being investigated over claims that he facilitated bogus weddings.

The clergyman is accused of setting up weddings that helped illegal immigrants obtain UK resident visas, the Church of England Newspaper reported.

Hundreds of weddings conducted by Magumba are also being reviewed by the UK Border Agency and the Greater Manchester Police.

Investigators are examining claims that the churchman abused his position to wed immigrants who had no legal right to remain in the UK.

A spokeswoman for the agency said: “The UK Border Agency arrested a 58-year-old man in Rochdale for questioning in connection with an ongoing investigation into sham marriages in the North West.

Magumba, 58, is accused of failing to read out the banns that are designed as part of a safety net to make sure a marriage is legitimate.

He is currently team vicar for the South Rochdale Team Ministry. He oversees three churches in the area – St Peter’s, Newbold, St Luke’s Deeplish, and St Mary’s, Balderstone.

Magumba has since been released on bail, the newspaper reported.

Sham weddings involve EU citizens marrying non-Europeans so they can earn the right to live in the UK.

Last year, a vicar, Rev Alex Brown, was sentenced to four years in jail for conducting 360 fake weddings to help foreigners evade immigration regulations. Brown married hundreds of African men desperate to obtain permanent residency rights in Britain.


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