Vicars 'presided over hundreds of sham marriages for immigrants David Walbank, prosecuting, said: "This case involves a massive and systematic immigration fraud. At the centre of this fraud is one particular parish church in the east of London, All Saints Church in Forest Gate. The Crown's case is that there took place in that church over a two and a half year period a very large number indeed of sham marriages entered into for the purpose of immigration. Most of the so-called couples participating in these marriage ceremonies were not actually couples at all. They were married in that church not because they wished to spend their lives together and wanted the blessing of the church, most of the persons married there for a very different reason. Their ultimate purpose was to obtain enhanced rights to enter and live in the United Kingdom. Mr Walbank told jurors that the majority of the marriages were between Nigerians and nationals from the European Economic Area, mainly from Portugal and Holland. He told the court: "The fraud, the Crown suggest, wasn't confined to one or two, or even a couple of dozen of ceremonies. We are concerned in this case with hundreds of sham marriages. On some occasions EEA nationals were flown into the UK specially for marriages to take place and then flown back out again. When police visited the church in July 2010, after being told that a number of sham weddings were due to take place that day, they met Miss Ladipo. She said she was there because a friend was getting married, the court was told. When asked for her friend's name, she "became agitated" and was later seen trying to get rid of a brown envelope under a bush in the church grounds. The envelope was found to contain a number of identity documents. Mr Walbank told jurors: "If the sham marriages hadn't been stopped they would have continued at a rate of knots as there were many more booked at the church that would have taken place." Jurors were told that Miss Ladipo had married a Dutch national in February 2010. "Her reason for going through with the marriage, we suggest, is entirely consistent with the motive of others at All Saints Church during the indictment period, to stay in the country," said Mr Walbank. Shipsides, of Forest Gate, has admitted conspiring to facilitate unlawful immigration. Miss Ladipo, of Dagenham, and Mr John, of Barking, both in east London, deny the same charge. Miss Ladipo also denies possessing false identity documents.