A SHAM marriage couple was rumbled when the bride could not spell her future husband's name for the registrar, a jury heard.

Slovakian Eva Dankova got Pakistani national Muhammed Khalil's second name wrong and the pair "could not converse in the same language," Bradford Crown Court was told yesterday.

Dankova, 42, and Khalil, 34, both of Devonshire Street West, Keighley, deny conspiring to commit an act, namely a sham marriage, between January 12 and February 2.

Dankova also pleads not guilty to bigamy because she was still married to Slovakian Andrej Danko.

Pizza chef insists relationship is based on love in sham marriage trial

Senior registrar, Lynda Fordham, said she interviewed the defendants at Leeds Register Office because both were foreign nationals.

Mrs Fordham told the jury she submitted "a suspicious marriage form" to immigration officers after Dankova spelled Khalil's name Kallih and there was no interaction between the couple.

Dankova had a translator but Khalil did all the talking at the interview, Mrs Fordham said.

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Prosecutor Angus MacDonald said the couple married at Keighley Town Hall on February 2 this year.

Immigration officer, Emma Lee, told the court police planned to attend the wedding but it was snowing and there was a breakdown in communication.

The defendants were arrested at their Keighley address on June 11.

Dankova, a cleaner, told officers she married for love and believed that she was divorced from Mr Danko.

She said of Khalil: "I don't want to lose him. I didn't marry him for money. I married him for love."

She said he was learning Slovakian and she had converted to Islam.

Khalil, a pizza chef, said he came to the UK in 2011 to study in London, then moved to Keighley because it was cheaper.

His visa had expired and he was an over stayer in the UK.

He and Dankova loved one another and his friend, a driving instructor, had read the Islamic marriage ceremony to him.

Khalil said the couple ate vegetable soup together, went shopping and watched TV.

He denied paying Dankova to marry him, saying he bought her a £69 engagement ring from Argos.

The jury heard he was also able to answer questions about what she wore in bed and what they did on Christmas Day.

The trial continues.