A couple have been jailed for ten months after their sham marriage was exposed.

Kristyna Salaseviciute, 28, and Vitalii Zhytnyk, 24, married at Worthing Register Office after Salaseviciute was offered £3,000 to take part in the scam which was fixed by the groom’s sister.

They were arrested by the UK Border Agency after the ceremony on May 8 last year for conspiracy to facilitate a breach of immigration law.

Lithuanian Salaseviciute, of Brougham Road, Worthing, and Zhytnyk, a Ukranian national who was living in South Farm Road, Worthing, married so he could get a visa to stay in the UK.

Woolwich Crown Court was told that the “bride” was set to receive half the money on marrying Vitalii and the rest when he received his visa.

The UK Border Agency’s South East Immigration Crime Team identified the marriage fixer as 29-year-old Lithuanian Maryna Zhytnyk Kavalyauske, also of South Farm Road.

Kavalyauske claimed that she had arranged the marriage so that her brother could remain in the UK to care for her two young children. She was also charged with conspiracy to facilitate a breach of immigration law.

The sham wedding pair pleaded guilty at Chichester Crown Court on August 25 this year.

Kavalyauske refused to plead guilty but later admitted an offence of assisting unlawful entry into an EU member state by a non-EU citizen.

She was given a six-month suspended sentence, and 110 hours of community service.

Jayne Hayes, who led the UK Border Agency’s south east immigration crime team investigation, said: “This case shows the desperate nature of immigration crime with large sums of money changing hands and people being prepared to enter into a full marriage with someone they barely know simply to cheat the immigration system.

“The UK Border Agency will not tolerate immigration abuse, and we are cracking down on sham marriages all over the country. Those who seek to cheat immigration laws face being put behind bars.”