A SECOND Accrington church has found itself targeted by organised crime gangs looking to stage bogus weddings.

Until now the investigations have centered on St. Peter's Church, Accrington, with a number of cases brought before the courts.

But St. Andrew's Church, Empress Street, has now found itself at the centre of the police inquiry.

A special police unit is tackling the problems of city crime gangs arranging for Nigerian grooms to marry Eastern Europeans living legally in this country for up to £10,000.

The crime groups are said to be targeting Accrington because the town's clergy ‘are not as alive to this kind of abuse’. As many as 40 weddings are being investigated.

Now two separate cases have been brought before Burnley Crown Court over bogus weddings at St. Andrew's Church.

Anna Gabcova, 32, was paid £500 upfront and another £1,000 after the ceremony to marry Gbadewale Adeleke.

Gabcova, who first came to Britain as an illegal immigrant, returned to this country after Czechoslovakia joined the European Union.

She was jailed for 16 months after admitting assisting unlawful immigration to a member state and bigamy, last May 18.

She had no previous convictions.

Judge Lunt, who said the sentence must punish Gabcova and deter others, told her: "Without the women prepared to commit these offences and enter into sham marriages, the offences could not take place."

The prosecutor said Mr Adeleke was at large and his whereabouts were unknown. He had applied for leave to remain in the UK in October 2009 on the basis of the marriage.

In a separate case at Burnley, Olarotimi Ojugbele, 41, wed a Czech woman. Yet when police quizzed him three months later he knew absolutely nothing about her family or even where his wife lived.

The defendant of Loughborough Park, London, had admitted possessing a false identification document with intent, making a false statement with reference to marriage and obtaining leave to enter or remain in the UK by deception.

Ojugbele was jailed for 21 months and had sobbed throughout the hearing.

Mother of two, Nadezda Mirgova, 26, of East Road, Longsight, Manchester, has earlier admitted making a false statement with reference to marriage and assisting unlawful immigration to a member state.

The defendant, who is pregnant, was bailed to await sentence on January 13.