1:57pm Thursday 29th July 2010
A vicar was found guilty today of conducting hundreds of sham marriages to help illegal immigrants gain residency in Britain.
The Reverend Alex Brown, 61, conducted 360 fake ceremonies at the church of St Peter and St Paul in St Leonards between July 2005 and July 2009.
Co-defendent Vladymyr Buchak was also convicted at Lewes Crown Court of conspiring to breach immigration laws by paying Eastern Europeans up to £3,000 each to marry Africans, mainly from Nigeria.
They were caught after the UK Border Agency investigated the bogus marriages.
The jury is still deliberating on a third defendant.
During the seven-week trial, jurors heard that Brown presided over a total of 383 marriages during the four-year indictment period, a staggering 30-fold increase on the 13 he had conducted over the previous four years.
They were told that Buchak, 33, a Ukrainian national who had himself been living illegally in the UK since at least 2004, was responsible for "cajoling and persuading" the Eastern Europeans into the marriages of convenience.
He preyed on migrant workers who were living in the area and were desperate to earn money by offering them large cash sums to wed Africans to allow them to obtain the documents to live and work in the UK.
Brown was arrested on June 30 last year following a joint investigation by Sussex Police and the UK Border Agency, and both his vicarage home in Blomfield Road, St Leonards- on-Sea, and the church were searched.
Outside the court, the Archdeacon of Lewes and Hastings, Philip Jones, said Brown had committed a "betrayal of trust" towards his congregation and the wider community.
He said: "We are particularly sorry for those who have been deceived and hurt by the actions of Father Alex Brown. The church and the community of St Leonards-on-Sea are faced with a betrayal of trust on the part of Father Alex Brown.
"The Diocese of Chichester sets high standards and expects its clergy not only to comply with the law but also to honour the trust placed in them at their ordination and the promises made on becoming a vicar.
"We are saddened that a priest in Chichester Diocese has found himself in this position and we are conscious of the effect on the Church of St Peter and St Paul, St Leonards-on-Sea, and the concern caused to those who have in the past been properly married at that church."
He added that Brown, who was suspended from his duties after his arrest, may now face disciplinary action from the Church.
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