IMMIGRATION minister Damian Green has vowed to crack down on sham marriages after a raft of fake weddings in West Yorkshire.

Mr Green said that the Border Agency had so far broken up 20 wedding ceremonies – including some in Huddersfield – and prevented a further 70 planned bogus nuptials in West Yorkshire.

He told the Examiner: “I’ve set the Border Agency a proper crackdown on these sham weddings.

“There are operations covering the Huddersfield area as well as Leeds, Bradford and Halifax.

“It’s interesting that sham marriages peaked about five or six years-ago and then died off.

“But over the past three years they have made a comeback as a way of people avoiding immigration controls.”

In April this year well-known Pakistani cricketer Javed Iqbal – currently living at Yews Hill Road in Thornton Lodge – tried to marry British woman Natalie Louise Roberts, 27, from Leicester.

Iqbal, 38, and Roberts have admitted the marriage – broken up by Border Agency officers at Huddersfield Register Office – was a scam so Iqbal could stay in the country.

Another man, Craig Hughes, 30, of Leicester, also admitted conspiracy to assist the marriage.

Another three deny they were involved.

They are Mohammed Ajmal, 45, of Northfield Grove, Lockwood; Mohammed Taj, 41, of Moorbottom Road, Lockwood and Salim Mullan, 57, of Tuskar Road in Leicester. They are due to stand trial in April.

In 2009, UK Border Agency officers and police swooped at Hartshead Moor services, between the Brighouse and Chain Bar junctions of the M62, to intercept a gang of Nigerian men.

Two Eastern European brides, one already wearing her wedding dress, were also detained as officers raided addresses in Cleckheaton and Scholes.

In total 14 foreign nationals were arrested before they could reach the church. The churches targeted by the gangs were St Philip and St James’ in Scholes and St Luke’s in Cleckheaton.

Five men were later jailed in the marriage scam designed to help Nigerian immigrants stay in the UK.

While two ‘brides’, from the Czech Republic and Slovakia, admitted conspiracy and were handed 12 month jail sentences, suspended for two years, and 250 hours unpaid work.

Mr Green said organised criminal gangs are thought to be behind the wedding racket.

They can net hundreds of thousands of pounds from foreigners desperate to live in the UK.

Registrars have a legal obligation to report any suspicions.

And the Church of England recently announced new measures to tackle sham marriages.

Vicars are being trained to spot bogus couples and report them to the immigration authorities.

Mr Green said: “Our best way of catching them is intelligence – so when either a registrar or vicar in a church finds something suspicious about a couple they are trained to inform us.

“Sometimes it’s quite obvious and the couple don’t even speak the same language.

“It’s characteristic that the women will be from Eastern European countries and men can come from anywhere in the rest of the world.”

Mr Green said there is a dedicated team of Border Agency officials in West Yorkshire trying to stamp out illegal marriages.

He said: “We like to see people get stiff sentences and quite a lot of people have been jailed.

“People are still at the stage of being surprised that they are being caught.

“But it’s a serious crime and the sentence should fit the crime.”