Marriage Fraud: Four Nigerians Jailed in UK for Forging Over 2,000 Marriage Documents

Four Nigerians have been jailed after forging more than 2,000 marriage certificates to help people live in the United Kingdom illegally.

Abraham Alade Olarotimi Onifade, 41, Abayomi Aderinsoye Shodipo, 38, Nosimot Mojisola Gbadamosi, 31, and Adekunle Kabir, 54, were all sentenced at Woolwich Crown Court in London on Tuesday.

The Home Office said the four were part of an organised criminal group that made fraudulent EU Settlement Scheme applications for Nigerian nationals between 2019 and 2023. They were all sentenced at Woolwich Crown Court on Tuesday.

They carried out the enterprise between March 2019 and May last year, and were also found to have provided false Nigerian Customary Marriage Certificates and other fraudulent documentation to help applicants remain in the country.

An investigation from the Home Office in the UK and Lagos found more than 2,000 false marriage documents were facilitated by the group, who themselves were Nigerian.

Onifade, from Gravesend in Kent, and Shodipo, from Manchester, were both found guilty of conspiracy to facilitate illegal entry into the UK and conspiracy to provide articles used in fraud. They were jailed for six years and five years respectively.