Exclusive: Bogus brides scam fixer is arrested after police swoop

Continued...
The wedding planner married herself off at least once to an African seeking a UK passport, in 2006.

She followed that up by persuading her own daughter Amanda - a new mum - to walk down the aisle with an African stranger.

Cathie, who has gone by several different names, topped the lot by being a witness at the wedding of her own live-in lover, "Shellsuit" Bob Tweedie.

The extent of her fake weddings scam was uncovered by the Record after we were tipped off by staff at register offices.

They had been horrified to see Cathie repeatedly turn up in various roles at obviously fake ceremonies.

She set up meetings, acted as a witness, took wedding photos and even arranged the flowers.

Some of the brides said the ceremonies were so obviously fake, it made them cringe.

We made our evidence available to the UK Border Agency, who took decisive action this week.

The scam centres on African men who have won temporary leave to study in Britain or seek asylum.

An African fixer finds a bride for them, through Cathie, and arrangements are made at one of a number of register offices used by the fraudsters.

After two years, the Africans are entitled to apply for their own permanent UK passport and are free to divorce their bogus bride or groom.

They could then go on to marry other women, possibly also gaining their new wives UK passports.

Several of the brides ended up out of pocket and stuck in an illegal marriage. In some cases, Cathie and her partners took all the cash after making the women pay for their own dress and rings.

They also took passports from their victims, using them to claim housing benefit and enable further dodgy deals.

The passports were never returned to the women, who were mainly recruited from the Tarfside Oval estate.

Cathie met at least one of the brides at Mackie's chemist, in Paisley Road West, where addicts would go for methadone.

Now the Africans involved in Cathie's racket face deportation.

Cathie is believed to have made her first contact with the African crooks at least 15 years ago, when she married a Moroccan man in 1993. It is not known when that marriage ended.

Her daughter Amanda, 27, who lives on benefits, was persuaded into taking part in the fraud as she had a baby on the way and was looking for cash for Christmas.

She was too ashamed to admit what she had done to her long-term boyfriend and recently became engaged to him.

The Record also told how Cathie flew into a fury when disabled Julie Martin had second thoughts. She left single mum Julie, 37, fearing her life was at risk from the African gangsters involved in the scam.

Gambian Lamin Manneh was brought to justice in May this year when he was given two years in prison for running a similar scam.

Manneh pocketed at least £500-a-time for luring prostitutes, drug addicts and other skint women into sham ceremonies in Scotland.

Last night, a spokeswoman for the UK Border Agency said: "We can confirm that a 47-year-old woman has been arrested in relation to offences under the Immigration Act. A report will be sent to the procurator fiscal."

The scale of sham marriages in the UK is unclear, although registrars believe there could be at least 10,000 a year.

Registrars in Brent Council in north London suggested in 2005 that a fifth of all marriages there were bogus.

Cathie made at least £1000 a time for arranging weddings.End.

"She should pay for what she had done. Marriage is a sacrament and should be done a sacred manner."

Exclusive: Bogus brides scam fixer is arrested after police swoop

By Mark McGivern

A WEDDING fixer who earned thousands by setting up fake marriages in a scam with African gangsters has been arrested in a dramatic raid.

Janet Cathie was led away in handcuffs by the UK Border Agency and Strathclyde Police.

And when she saw a Record reporter as she was frogmarched out of the building, she screamed at him: "Not you again - I don't f****** believe it."

Cathie was later released and a report will be sent to prosecutors who will determine whether she should face charges.

The bust came after a series of articles by the Record exposed the huge fake bride racket in Scotland.

Cathie, 47, set up at least eight fake weddings, including her own, her live-in boyfriend's and her daughter's. She is suspected of having a hand in many more.

She operated at tough Tarfside Oval estate in Pollok, Glasgow, rounding up skint single mums and drug addicts she could bully into signing up for fake ceremonies.

Cathie coined in at least £1000 a time for arranging the weddings and took a double fee by appearing as a witness at several ceremonies in registry offices in Glasgow and Paisley.

Some of the vulnerable women who were roped into the scheme were promised £2000 - but ended up with nothing.

One woman who got cold feet over marrying a Ghanaian man was told she would be shot by African crooks if she pulled out.

Cathie even short-changed her own daughter Amanda McCourt, giving her only half of the promised £2000 wedding fee.

The weddings were set up by an African Mr Big, who typically took cash raised by the families of Ghanaian students to set them up with partners.

The scam generally involved both partners meeting up to exchange cursory details on each other's lives before the ceremonies, which were described as "laughably" fake by insiders.

Cathie was a close associate of Lamin Manneh, an African who was jailed for two years at Paisley Sheriff Court earlier this year for operating a parallel scam.

Brazen Cathie recruited most of her bogus brides after meeting them through their shared dependency on the heroin substitute methadone.

The penniless former heroin addicts were promised easy cash or threatened and bullied into marrying Ghanaian strangers.Continued...