A marriage scam, revealed after police swooped on a bogus wedding at Scholes, near Bradford, has been highlighted as one of the cases which has helped to establish the UK Border Agency as a major law enforcement body.

The Home Office yesterday revealed that specialist UKBA immigration crime teams, working with police, prosecuted more than 2,200 people for immigration crimes, including human trafficking, fraud and drug smuggling, last year.

One of the high profile cases featured a group of Nigerian men and women involved in sham marriages with Slovakians, centred on churches in Bradford.

The bogus weddings were taking place to allow the Nigerians to remain in the UK as spouses of EU citizens. It was believed up to £2,000 was being extorted from Nigerian men desperate to stay in the UK.

Investigations by the UKBA’s Immigration Crime Team led to suspects being filmed at church wedding interviews.

Border and Immigration Minister Phil Woolas yesterday launched the UKBA’s five-year crime strategy at the European Serious Organised Crime conference.

The Minister said: “You will be targeted, you will be caught and immigration powers can and will be used to prosecute you and remove you from the country.”